THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 


ALASKA 


AND   THE  KLONDIKE 


BY 


JOHN    SCUDDER    McLAIN 


Illustrated  from  Photographs 

NEW    YORK 

McCLURE,  PHILLIPS    &    CO. 

MCMVII 


79184 


Copyright,  igo$,  by 
McCLURE,    PHILLIPS   &    CO. 

Published,  March,  igo5 


To 

My  First  /Assistant 
My  JVife 


CONTENTS 

I.     The  "  Inside  Passage  "  . 
II.     Skagway  to  Dawson 

III.  A  "  ClIEE-CHA-KO  "  IN  THE  KLONDIKE 

IV.  Crossing  the  Arctic  Circle  . 
V.     Through  the  Heart  of  Alaska     . 

VI.     Phases  of  Life  on  Bering  Sea 
VII.     Nome   and   the    Gold    Fields    of    the 
Seward   Peninsula 
VIII.     The  Seal  Islands 
IX.     The  Alaskan  Fisheries 
X.     Transportation — The  Key  to  Alaska' 

LocKED-up  Wealth     . 
XL     Political  Conditions 
XII.     Agricultural  Possibilities  of  Alaska 

XIII.  Indians  of  Alaska 

XIV.  The  Fairbanks  District 
XV.     The  Reindeer  Industry 


3 

22 
41 

68 

98 

126 

150 

175 
194 

213 

237 
258 
276 
303 

315 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Sailing  the  "  Inside  Passage  "  to  Skagway  .  .        7 

Totem  at  Wrangell        .          .          .          .  .  -15 

Hydraulic  Mining,  Silver  Bow  Basin        .  .  •      i? 

Juneau   in  Winter          .          .          .          .  .  -19 

"  Mushing  "  over  White  Pass  in  1898      .  .  .20 

White  Horse  Rapids     .          .          .          .  .  -25 

Bishop  Bompas     .......     28 

Typical  Upper  Yukon  Craft  in  1898       .  .  -33 

Travelling  on  the  Yukon       .          .          .  .  -35 

"  Wooding  up  "  on  the  Yukon        .          .  .  -37 

Five  Finger  Rapids  on  the  Upper  Yukon  .  .     40 

The  Governor's  Residence  in  Dawson     .  .  -43 

Looking  Northwest  down  the  Yukon       .  .  -47 

Northwest  Mounted  Police     .          .          .  .  •     S'^ 

Street  Scene  in  Grand  Forks    .          .          .  .  -57 

George  A.  Brackett  Washing  out  a  Pan    .  .  -59 

"  Chee-cha-ko  "  Hill  in  the  Klondike        .  .  .63 

"  Skipper "  Norwood     .          .          .          .  .  '65 

Washing  out  Gold  with  the  Rocker         .  .  -73 

River  Front  at  Eagle     .          .          .          .  .  -75 

The  Senator  from  Minnesota  Ready  for  the  Trail  at 

Eagle   ........     77 

A  Dog  Team  in  Alaska         .         .         .  .  -79 


xu 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Page 


Officers   Composing  Overland  Expedition — C 

jar\  is  on  the  Right 
Ben  Downing        .... 
Miner  and  Dogs  Rigged  for  Packing 
Old  Hudson  Bay  Trading  Post,  Fort  Yukon 
Bargain  Day  at  Rampart 
Djg  Power  at  Rampart 
While  Crossing  the  Arctic  Circle 
Drying  Salmon  on  the  Yukon 
Indian  "  Cache  "  at  Rampart 
Horns  of  Primeval  Ox  . 
Lodge  of  Arctic  Brotherhood,  Rampart 
Indian  Graves  at  Anvik 
A  "  Prominent  Citizen  "  of  Anvik 
An  Afternoon  Tea  at  Anvik    . 
Holy  Cross  Mission  Chapel    . 
Indian  School  at  Holy  Cross  Mission 
Old  Russian  Blockhouse  at  St.  Michael 
Belles  of  St.  Michael     . 
Interior  of  the  Kazhim,  St.  Michael 
The  McCulloch  at  Sea  . 
Captain  Coulson  . 
A  Section  of  Nome 
A  Bit  of  Nome  Surf      . 
Landing  at  Nome 
Arriving  at  Nome  a  Little  Early 
The  Senate  "  Goes  in  the  Air  " 


iptam 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Xlll 


Page 

Main  Street  in  Nome     .  .  .  .  .  •    151 

Nome  in    1899      .  .  .  .  .  .  -153 

The  Senatorial  Banquet  at  Nome     .  .  .  •    I55 

Jafet  Linderberg  and  Party    .  .  .  .  .161 

A  Clean-up  on  "  No.  8  Abov^e,"  on  Anvnl  Creek         .    163 
Sluice  Boxes  on  Anvil  Creek  .  .  ,  .  .165 

Washing  out  Gold  with  a  "  Long  Tom  "  near  Nome   167 
Curio  Peddlers  at  Nome 
Killing  Seal  on  St.  Paul  Island 
Taking  Seal  Pelts  on  the  Killing  Grounds 
A  Section  of  a  Seal  Rookery  on  St.  Paul  Island 
Unalaska      ..... 

Pacific  Squadron  in   Dutch  Harbour 
Kodiak,  or  St.  Paul,  on  Kadiak  Island 
Drawing  in  the  Net  at  Karluk 
South  Alaska  Indian  in  Kiak  . 
Columbia  Glacier,  Prince  William  Sound 
Valdez  ..... 

It  Snows  in  Valdez 

Solomon  Rapids,  near  Valdez 

Islands  in  Sitka  Harbour 

Sitka  Totems         .... 

Sitka  in  Winter     .... 

The  Shore  Walk  Leading  to  Indian  River  Park 
The  Greek  Church  at  Sitka 
Madonna  in  Greek  Church,  Sitka     . 
Interior  of  Greek  Church,  Sitka 


\1V 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


er  on  the  Sandspit 


drown    In    Alaska 
I'otatoes  from  Kadiak  , 
Varieties  of  Oats  Grown  at  Sitka 
Eskimo  Woman  Cooking  Her  Supp 

at  Nome 
Fourth  of  July  at  Metlakahtla 
Berry  Pickers 
Eskimo  Woman  and  Child 
Metlakahtla 
Father  Duncan 

Residence  and  Totem  of  Chief  Tlah-Go-Glass 
Eskimo  Boy  and  Young  Malamute 
Getting  Busy  In  Fairbanks 
Fresh  Arrivals  at  Fairbanks    . 
Midday  Rest  of  Reindeer  Herd 
Laps  and  Reindeer 
Group  of  Laplanders  in  Alaska 
Mary  Andrewuk,  Reindeer  Rancher  and  Richest  Na 

tlve  Woman  in  Alaska    »  .  .  . 


Page 

263 

266 

268 

277 
281 

283 

287 
289 

291 

293 
297 

305 
309 
317 
319 

321 

323 


A  FOREWORD 

When  the  special  subcommittee  of  the  Senate  Com- 
mittee on  Territories  visited  Alaska  in  the  summer  of 
igoj  for  the  purpose  of  gathering  information  ivJiich 
zvould  enable  them  to  legislate  wisely  and  helpfully  with 
regard  to  that  great  district,  I  was  fortunate  enough  to 
obtain  permission  to  accompany  the  senatorial  party  in  an 
unofficial  capacity.  The  trip  occupied,  approximately,  ten 
weeks,  and  carried  ns  not  only  through  the  interior,  along 
the  whole  course  of  the  Yukon  River,  but  to  many  places 
on  the  coast  and  among  the  islands  not  readily  accessible 
by  the  regular  means  of  travel.  As  will  he  readily  under- 
stood, I  enjoyed  peculiarly  favourable  opportunities  to 
study  the  resources  and  the  possibilities  of  the  country,  and 
the  following  pages  on  Alaska,  in  their  original  form, 
were  written  for  my  paper  after  my  return  home,  and 
published  in  it  exclusively.  There  appears  to  be  a  demand 
for  reliable  and  up-to-date  information  about  that  coun- 
try— that,  and  the  urgent  recjuest  of  men  who  have  read 
what  I  have  written,  and  who  know  Alaska,  that  il  be 
given  permanent  and  convenient  form,  are  the  excuses  for 
this  volume. 

For  this  purpose  the  original  story  of  Alaska  has  been 
carefully  revised  and  the  statistical  information  brought 
down  to  include  the  commercial  and  industrial  operations 
of  the  year  1904.     - 

J.  S.  M. 

Minneapolis,  1904. 


ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 


I 

THE  "INSIDE  PASSAGE" 

WELL,  what  do  you  think  about  it,  anyway?  Is 
Alaska  any  good?  " 

I  have  met  that  question  in  substantially  that 
form  a  great  many  times  since  I  returned  from  a  somewhat 
extended  journey  through  Alaska.  Perhaps  I  cannot  add 
much  that  is  new  to  the  romance  of  that  land  of  adventure, 
but  I  am  ready  to  furnish  an  answer  to  the  above  question. 

In  a  nutshell,  then — and  prefatory  first  to  the  story  of 
my  trip  and  then  to  some  discussion  of  the  various  impor- 
tant interests  and  questions  pertaining  to  Alaska — my 
observation  and  enquiry  have  fully  persuaded  me  that 
Alaska  is  a  wonderfully  rich  country. 

Rich  in  minerals — 

Rich  in  timber — • 

Rich  in  agricultural  possibilities — 

Rich  in  fisheries. 

When  Secretary  Seward  purchased  Alaska  from  Russia 
in  1867  for  $7,200,000  the  anti-expansionists  of  that 
period  ridiculed  the  transaction  as  a  piece  of  supreme  folly 
and  the  public  generally  agreed  that  he  had  bought  nothing 
in  particular  except  a  few  fur  seals  and  a  vast  expanse  of 
icebergs  and  glaciers. 

The  commerce  of  Alaska  for  the  year  ending  June  30, 


4  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

1903,  imountcd  to  over  $21,000,000,  not  including  the 
gold  output,  which  would  add  nearly  $7,000,000  more. 
It  is  officially  stated  that  since  Alaska  became  American 
territory  it  has  exported  furs,  fish  and  gold  in  about  equal 
values  to  the  amount  of  $150,000,000,  while  investments 
of  American  capital  in  Alaska  have  reached  $25,000,000. 
To  this  should  be  added  considerable  sums  employed  in 
furnishing  transportation  to  Alaska.  The  same  official 
authority  estimates  the  aggregate  shipments  of  merchan- 
dise to  Alaska  from  the  United  States  during  the  same 
period  at  $100,000,000.  It  takes  something  more  than 
a  few  seals  and  Icebergs  to  develop  a  commerce  of  such 
dimensions.  That  this  is  only  the  small  beginning  of  what 
is  to  follow  in  the  not  far  distant  future  is  my  firm  belief. 

I  hope  I  shall  be  correctly  understood,  for  while  I  am 
much  Impressed  with  the  great  natural  wealth  of  Alaska 
and  the  opportunities  which  It  offers  to  men  of  courage 
and  even  moderate  resources,  It  does  not  seem  to  me  to 
offer  at  the  present  time  to  the  man  equipped  with  only  a 
pair  of  strong  hands  the  Inducements  which  should  attract 
him  In  large  numbers.  Labour  is  In  moderate  demand  and 
comparatively  well  paid,  but  there  are  no  "  diggings  " 
now  like  the  beach  sands  at  Nome,  where  at  one  time, 
with  only  a  shovel  and  a  pan,  a  man  could  wash  out  a 
moderate  fortune  in  a  few  days.  Such  remarkably  rich 
deposits  of  gold  capable  of  being,  worked  in  the  same  Inex- 
pensive way  may  be  found  again,  but  there  are  no  such 
attractive  chances  for  the  poor  man  in  sight  now. 

During  the  winter  of  1902  and  1903  when  matters  of 


THE  "  INSIDE  PASSAGE  "  5 

legislation  affecting  Alaska  were  under  consideration  by 
the  Senate  committee  on  territories  the  members  of  that 
committee  felt  considerably  embarrassed  by  their  lack  of 
accurate  and  reliable  information  as  to  the  real  needs  of 
that  district.  No  member  of  the  committee  had  ever  seen 
Alaska.  Advice  was  proffered  on  various  subjects  from 
various  sources,  not  all  of  which,  the  committee  felt,  could 
be  relied  upon  as  valuable  or  disinterested.  The  conclu- 
sion could  not  be  evaded  that  the  proper  thing  for  the  com- 
mittee to  do  was  to  send  a  delegation  of  its  own  members 
to  Alaska  during  the  summer  vacation  to  study  the  district 
politically  and  commercially  and  from  every  other  stand- 
point. Senator  Beveridge,  chairman  of  the  committee, 
selected  as  such  subcommittee  Senator  W.  P.  Dillingham, 
of  Vermont,  chairman  of  the  subcommittee;  Senator  H.  E. 
Burnham,  of  New  Hampshire;  Senator  Knute  Nelson,  of 
Minnesota;  and  Senator  Thomas  M.  Patterson,  of  Colo- 
rado. I  was  fortunate  enough  to  secure,  through  the  kind- 
ness of  Senator  Beveridge,  permission  to  accompany  this 
senatorial  subcommittee  on  their  tour  of  investigation. 
The  party  was  in  the  charge  of  Colonel  D.  M.  Ransdell, 
sergeant-at-arms  of  the  United  States  Senate.  Other  mem- 
bers of  the  party  were  Secretaries  A.  C.  Johnson,  of  Den- 
\er,  and  J.  F.  Hayes,  of  Indianapolis.  I  was  extremely 
fortunate,  too,  in  having  for  my  travelling  companion  as 
far  as  Dawson,  Mr.  George  A.  Brackett,  of  Minneapolis, 
who  was  returning  to  look  after  important  mining  interests 
of  his  own  in  Atlin,  on  the  Canadian  side.  His  long  and 
eventful  life  in  the  Northwest,  his  extensive  acquaintance 


6  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

and  his  acti\c  and  Important  participation  in  the  con- 
structi\c  work  between  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains  in  earlier  days,  and  more  recently  in  Alaska 
itself,  made  him  an  inv^aluable  source  of  information  and 
means  of  introduction. 

7'he  committee  assembled  at  Seattle  June  25,  1903. 
The  business  men  of  Seattle,  whose  prosperity  has  been 
built  largely  out  of  the  Alaskan  trade,  were  not  slow  to 
appreciate  the  importance  of  this  official  visit,  and  gladly 
availed  themselves  of  an  invitation  to  come  before  the 
committee  and  give  information  concerning  Alaska  and 
make  suggestions  as  to  what  Congress  could  do  to  promote 
its  welfare.  Representatives  of  the  Seattle  Chamber  of 
Commerce  brought  up  for  consideration  at  that  meeting 
pretty  nearly  every  question  of  importance  that  arose  in 
the  subsequent  weeks  of  thorough  enquiry — amendments 
to  the  mining  laws  and  particularly  the  abolition  of  the 
power  of  attorney  in  locating  mining  claims;  the  question 
of  a  delegate  in  Congress  and  of  a  territorial  form  of 
government;  the  preservation  of  the  fisheries;  better  mail 
facilities,  and  the  great  need  of  wagon  roads — these  and 
other  matters  affecting  the  development  of  the  district  were 
discussed  by  men  compelled  by  their  business  connections 
and  interests  to  be  familiar  with  the  situation  in  Alaska. 

It  was  nearly  9  o'clock  in  the  ev^ening  of  June  28,  when 
Captain  Hunter  gave  the  order  to  "  cast  loose  "  and  the 
Dolphin  drifted  slowly  out  from  the  slip  at  Seattle  and 
turned  her  prow  toward  Skagway.  After  the  last  "  good- 
byes "  had  been  shouted  from  ship  to  shore  and  from  shore 


8  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

to  ship  aiul  the  handkerchiefs  had  ceased  to  wave  fare- 
well, my  interest  centred  upon  the  ship's  company.  Night 
was  falling  and  there  was  little  opportunity  then  to  see 
and  enjoy  further  the  scenic  beauties  of  that  great  inland 
waterway,  which  is  already  beginning  to  attract  the  larger 
part  of  the  commerce  of  our  Pacific  coast.  The  mar- 
vellous growth  of  the  shipping  with  our  own  coast,  with 
Alaska  and  with  the  Orient,  which  is  centring  in  Puget 
Sound  ports  is  an  interesting  theme  of  itself,  but  it  is  not 
a  part  of  this  story.  We  are  bound  for  Alaska  and  find 
a  shipload  going  the  same  way.  It  is  an  interesting  com- 
pany. The  first  question  you  will  have  to  answer  with 
respect  to  yourself  when  you  start  to  Alaska,  is  whether 
you  ha\e  ever  been  "  inside."  You  will  presently  dis- 
cover that  "  inside  "  and  "  outside  "  are  the  common 
designations  of  one's  movements  to  or  from  Alaska. 
Those  who  are  going  to  the  interior  of  Alaska  are  "  going 
inside  "  and  those  who  leave  the  country  are  going  "  out- 
side." And  the  term  is  not  inapt.  Here  in  the  States  we 
think  of  Alaska  as  a  long  way  off,  and  the  use  of  the  words 
"  inside  "  and  "  outside  "  with  respect  to  it  is  unconscious 
testimony  on  the  part  of  the  residents  of  Alaska  to  the 
remoteness  and  present  difiiculties  of  access  to  the  greater 
part  of  that  country. 

A  turn  on  deck  and  through  the  cabin  of  this  speedy  and 
comfortable  boat  suggests  the  title  of  one  of  Mr.  Besant's 
books — there  are  "  All  Sorts  and  Conditions  of  Men  " 
there — and  women,  too.  Indeed,  women  seem  to  pre- 
dominate and  an  explanation  is  found  in  the  fact  that  it 


THE  "INSIDE  PASSAGE"  9 

Is  a  custom  for  men  in  Alaska  and  the  Klondike  whose 
business  requires  that  they  stay  "  inside  "  in  winter  to 
send  their  wives  "  outside  "  during  that  season.  The 
women  are  now  returning  to  their  husbands.  The  rush 
had  already  gone  in,  on  the  earlier  boats,  but  there  are 
among  the  company  some  who  have  "  struck  it  rich,"  and, 
mining  being  largely  at  a  standstill  in  Alaska  in  winter, 
they  choose  to  speild  their  winters  in  southern  California 
or  New  York  where  there  are  plenty  of  opportunities  to 
enjoy  the  thousands  which  their  sluice  boxes  yield  in  sum- 
mer. There  are  some  engaged  in  legitimate  branches  of 
business  in  Alaska  and  some  not  so  engaged.  We  are 
many  miles  from  Alaska's  most  southerly  cape,  but  it  is  not 
too  soon  to  scent  the  Alaskan  atmosphere,  and  the  oppor- 
tunities afforded  on  board  an  Alaska-bound  steamer  to 
get  in  on  the  ground  floor  of  a  mining  deal  are  not  to  be 
despised  on  account  of  their  infrequency  or  for  lack  of 
the  brilliant  prospects  that  are  offered. 

Of  course  we  take  the  inside  passage,  and  the  next  morn- 
ing finds  us  in  British  waters  between  the  mainland  and 
Vancouver  Island,  a  piece  of  land  about  one-third  as  big 
as  England  herself,  broken  off  the  west  coast  of  British 
America  and  rich  in  timber,  minerals  and  fruitful  valleys, 
with  a  climate  not  unlike  that  of  the  mother  country, 
which  held  on  to  this  island  as  well  as  the  adjacent  main- 
land as  a  crown  colony  long  after  the  organisation  of  the 
Dominion  of  Canada.  » 

It  is  just  about  an  even  thousand  miles  from  Seattle  to 
Skagway,  and  all  the  way  practically  the  route  lies  among 


lo  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

the  islands  which  guard  the  western  coast  hke  pickets  of 
the  hne,  their  lofty  mountain  peaks  often  obscured  by 
the  clouds  or  glistening  white  as  the  sunlight  falls  upon 
their  snowy  summits.  The  channels  are  deep,  the  waters 
green  and  dark  and  wonderfully  phosphorescent  at  night, 
but  quiet  as  an  inland  lake;  and  one  may  give  himself  over 
to  full  enjoyment  of  the  ever-changing  and  ever- charming 
panorama  of  sea  and  mountain,  of  crags  and  peaks  and 
softly  wooded  slopes,  of  vegetation  at  the  water's  edge, 
dense  and  tropical  in  its  luxuriance,  suddenly  cut  off  for  a 
space  w'here  a  rigid  stream  of  ice  and  snow,  heading  up 
among  the  mountain  tops,  fills  the  passes  between  and 
comes  down  almost  to  the  water's  edge — such  contrasts 
does  Nature  delight  in  that  she  plants  her  fairest  flowers 
at  the  feet  of  her  dead  glaciers.  Sometimes  the  w'ater 
passes  widen  to  several  miles,  and  again  they  contract  to 
a  few  hundred  feet  of  narrow  gorge  where  the  deep  green 
waters  of  the  sea  boil  and  foam  and  dash  along  the  nearby 
rocky  shores  as  the  tide  rushes  in  or  out. 

At  such  times  the  skill  of  the  navigator  is  put  to  the 
test,  especially  under  the  hitherto  deplorable  and  almost 
criminal  neglect  of  this  coast  by  the  lighthouse  service  of 
both  the  United  States  and  the  Dominion  Governments; 
for,  while  the  Dominion  Government  has  certainly  acted 
more  liberally,  as  well  as  more  wisely,  than  our  own  Gov- 
ernment in  this  respect,  there  is  a  pressing  need  of  great 
improvement  all  along  these  now  much-travelled  water- 
ways. 

The  inside  passage  is  said  to  resemble  very  much  the 


THE  "INSIDE  PASSAGE"  ii 

waters  along  the  west  coast  of  Norway,  whose  fjords  have 
begun  to  attract  tourists  from  our  own  country  by  their 
wild  and  rugged  grandeur,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  when 
their  attractions  become  known  for  what  they  are  the 
ocean  stretches  of  the  archipelago  between  Puget  Sound 
and  the  Lynn  Canal  are  destined  to  constitute  one  of  the 
most  frequented  summer  playgrounds  of  the  world,  as 
they  certainly  are  one  of  the  most  charming.  What  a 
delightful  place  for  a  holiday  cruise  in  yacht  or  launch, 
where  quiet  coves  or  landlocked  harbours  may  be  found 
for  every  night's  anchorage;  where  game  abounds  on  the 
islands  and  the  waters  teem  with  life  of  every  kind,  from 
the  trout  of  the  mountain  streams  to  the  sociable  porpoise 
and  the  spouting  whale.  And  not  only  is  there  the  charm 
of  scenery,  such  as  our  continent  nowhere  else  affords,  and 
the  opportunity  for  rare  sport  with  rod  and  gun,  but  the 
hospitable  and  friendly  native  Indians,  in  their  pictur- 
esque villages,  are  a  source  of  unfailing  interest.  This 
archipelago  is  the  land  of  the  totem  pole,  whose  grotesque 
and  often  hideous  carvings  argue  strongly  for  the  Asiatic 
origin  of  a  people  who  are  rapidly  disappearing  before  the 
march  of  western  civilisation.  If  their  Asiatic  origin  may 
not  be  safely  asserted,  it  must  at  least  be  conceded  that  in 
their  handicrafts  of  weaving  and  carving  their  arts  appear 
to  have  been  much  influenced  by  contact  with  the  Japanese 
somewhere  and  at  some  time. 

Captain  C.  E.  Peabody,  president  ol  the  Alaska  Steam- 
ship Company,  fully  appreciating  the  importance  to  Alaska 
of  affording  the  senatorial   committee  every   facility   for 


12  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

prosecuting  their  work,  gave  instructions  that  the  Dol- 
phin should  run  on  this  trip  to  suit  the  convenience  of 
the  senators.  This  made  it  possible  for  us,  after  touch- 
ing in  the  night  at  Ketchikan,  the  first  port  of  entry  in 
Alaska,  to  return — somewhat  out  of  our  course — early  on 
the  morning  of  the  third  day  out,  to  Metlakahtla,  the 
most  remarkable  and  interesting  Indian  community  in 
America.  The  story  of  this  community  has  been  told  in 
part  in  newspapers  and  magazines,  and  naturally  our 
interest  was  lively  as  we  came  in  sight  of  its  imposing 
church  towers,  its  extensive  fish  cannery,  its  sawmills,  its 
school  and  hospital  buildings,  its  stores  and  comfortable- 
looking  dwellings,  and  recalled  the  fact  that  this  was  the 
work  of  one  man  working  alone,  and  beginning  with  a 
tribe  of  Indians  who  were  once  so  low  in  the  human  scale 
that  they  have  been  accused  of  cannibalism  when  in  their 
savage  state.  Father  Duncan,  as  he  is  called,  can  hardly  be 
spoken  of  as  a  type — there  are  no  others  like  him. 

As  the  ship  touched  the  dock  in  the  early  morning,  a 
few  native  men,  who  had  been  attracted  by  the  boat's 
whistle,  came  forward  bowing,  and  trying  to  make  them- 
seh^es  understood  in  broken  English — and  when  an  Alaska 
Indian  breaks  up  the  English  language  his  habit  of  gut- 
turals and  aspirates  knocks  it  into  little  bits.  One  of 
them  was  sent  forward  to  notify  Father  Duncan  of  our 
arrival,  while  we  followed  after,  and  met  this  remarkable 
little  man  as  he  came  bustling  out  of  his  house,  apologising 
for  the  apparently  inhospitable  reception,  on  the  score  of 
no  anticipation  of  a  senatorial  visit.  A  short,  stocky  man, 


THE  "  INSIDE  PASSAGE  "  13 

round-faced  and  ruddy;  merry-eyed  and  having  under  his 
round,  black  hat  a  fringe  of  thin,  white  hair;  beard  full 
and  snowy;  nervous  and  quick  in  movement,  modest  in 
every  reference  to  his  work,  but  pleased  to  have  others 
interest  themselves  in  it — these  are  some  of  the  recollec- 
tions I  have  of  William  Duncan  as  he  led  us  to  the  school- 
house,  to  the  church,  to  the  girls'  school,  the  hospital, 
the  salmon  cannery,  the  sawmill,  and  repeatedly  assured 
us  that  the  Indians  had  built  it  all.  Metlakahtla  is  on 
Annette  Island,  at  the  lower  end  of  the  American  part  of 
the  west-coast  archipelago. 

If  this  is  Indian  life  in  Alaska,  surely,  it  was  suggested, 
the  natives  have  little  to  complain  of.  But  a  view  of  what 
has  been  accomplished  at  Metlakahtla  served  later  to 
heighten  the  contrast  between  what  our  Government  has 
done,  or  rather,  has  not  done,  for  the  natives  of  Alaska, 
and  what  it  ought  to  have  done  and  might  have  done 
profitably,  viewing  the  matter  purely  from  the  commercial 
standpoint. 

But  Father  Duncan  and  his  Indians  furnish  the  material 
for  a  good  story  by  themselves,  the  telling  of  which  must 
be  left  for  another  chapter — for  we  have  only  just  entered 
Alaskan  waters,  and  Skagway,  our  ship's  destination,  is 
300  miles  away.  Practically  two-thirds  of  this  beautiful 
archipelago,  it  should  be  understood,  belongs  to  Canada. 
If  we  had  known  in  1845  what  we  know  now  about  its 
resources  of  minerals  and  timber  alone,  perhaps  wc  wouUl 
have  stood  by  our  bluff  of  "  fifty-four,  forty  or  fight,"  and 
the  whole  coast   from    Pugct   Sound   to   Portland    Canal, 


14  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

where  the  Russian  boundary  of  Alaska  had  been  fixed  in 
1824,  would  have  been  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

Leaving  Metlakahtla  after  a  two  hours'  v'isit,  we 
returned  to  Ketchikan,  the  first  white  man's  town  reached 
in  Alaskan  territory.  It  is  a  new  and  thriving  little  city 
of  1,000  people  incorporated  and  commencing  to  take  on 
the  airs  of  municipal  life  in  the  form  of  public  water- 
works and  a  municipal  electric-light  plant.  Built  largely 
on  piles  along  the  water's  edge  it  looks  like  a  town  on 
stilts,  the  buildings  on  the  water  front,  and  those  further 
up  the  mountainside,  having  difficulty  to  find  a  level  place 
big  enough  for  the  four  corners  of  a  small  foundation  and 
compelled,  while  resting  one  side  on  the  ground,  to  support 
the  other  in  air,  perched  above  the  steep  decline  on  long, 
upright  timbers.  Ketchikan  exists  because  of  important 
mining  operations  and  prospects  in  that  region  and  be- 
cause of  salmon  canneries  in  that  vicinity.  It  boasts,  also, 
a  busy  lumber  mill,  at  whose  back  door  stands  an  immense 
forest  of  spruce,  cedar,  fir  and  hemlock.  It  is  on  these 
islands  of  the  "  inside  passage  "  that  nature  has  stored 
the  principal  timber  resources  of  Alaska.  They  are  not 
in  large  demand  now,  but  the  time  will  come  when  their 
extent  and  quality  will  constitute  one  of  Alaska's  impor- 
tant assets.  Ketchikan,  like  Atlantic  City,  has  a  board 
walk,  but  here  it  penetrates  the  forest  along  the  banks  of 
a  rushing  mountain  stream,  and  leads  to  the  falls  which 
are  to  furnish  light  and  power.  It  sticks  in  my  recollec- 
tion because  it  afforded  the  first  opportunity  to  see  what 
the  forests  of  these  islands  are,  back  from  the  shore  line, 


THE  "  INSIDE  PASSAGE  " 


15 


how  gigantic  the  timber  and  how  dense  the  growth,  while 
the  undergrowth  in  its  rank  and  tangled  luxuriance  sug- 
gests nothing  so  much  as 
the  semi-tropical  jungle  of 
the  Florida  swamps,  and 
this  on  mountain  slopes 
whose  summits  are  capped 
with  perpetual  snow.  But 
the  climate  is  out  of  keep- 
ing with  the  latitude. 

On  the  same  meridian 
with  Fort  York,  where  the 
Nelson  River  flows  into 
Hudson  Bay,  and  with 
north  central  Labrador, 
the  thermometer  rarely 
reaches  zero  at  Ketchikan 
and  the  mean  temperature 
is  about  that  of  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.  The  Japan  cur- 
rent, which  sweeps  along 
the  south  side  of  the  Aleu- 
tian chain,  the  south  shore 
of  the  mainland  and  im- 
pinges on  this  archipelago, 
keeps  all  the  harbours  on 
Its  course  open  in  winter 
as  well  as  in  summer  and  produces  in  this  jiart  ol  Alaska  a 
climate  which   led  e\-(  io\'ernor  Swinclord,  who  is  a   resl- 


Totcm  at  W'ran^cl 


1 6  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

dent  of  Ketchikan,  to  say  that  if  he  were  a  resident  of  any 
state  east  of  the  mountains  he  would  come  here  to  spend 
his  winters  in  preference  to  Florida. 

The  same  evening,  July  i,  we  touched  at  Wrangell,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Stikine  River.  Once  a  Russian  post, 
then  leased  to  Great  Britain  for  the  benefit  of  the  Hudson 
Bay  Company,  which  lease  cut  a  figure  in  the  Alaskan 
boundary  arbitration;  afterwards  a  lively  camp  when  the 
Cassiar  mines  were  discovered  and  active  still  later  when 
efforts  were  made  to  reach  the  Klondike  by  the  Stikine 
route,  Wrangell  occupies  a  picturesque  location,  and  tour- 
ists will  always  remember  it  for  its  curious  totem  poles. 
Here  was  established  the  first  military  post  when  Alaska 
became  a  possession  of  the  United  States  in   1867. 

The  next  morning,  July  2,  brought  us  to  Juneau,  the 
principal  city  of  southeastern  Alaska,  and  the  centre  of 
an  important  mining  region.  It  is  on  the  mainland,  and 
back  of  it  is  the  celebrated  Silver  Bow  Basin,  while  across 
the  channel  on  Douglas  Island  is  the  great  Treadwell 
mine  which,  taken  together  with  the  Mexican  and  the 
Ready  Bullion  properties,  operated  in  connection  with 
it,  is,  with  probably  not  more  than  one  exception,  the 
largest  gold-quartz  mining  plant  in  the  world.  Nearly 
1,200  men  are  employed  here,  working  in  two  shifts  a  day, 
and  the  adjacent  mountainsides  echo  the  ceaseless  roar  of 
880  stamps,  crushing  ore  that  ranges  from  $2  to  $7  a  ton. 
The  total  product  of  this  property  since  it  began  to  be 
operated  is  variously  estimated  at  from  $12,000,000  to 
$20,000,000 — twice  as  much,  it  is  safe  to  say,  as  would 


1 8  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

have  paid  the  purchase  price  of  the  whole  district  of 
Alaska. 

This  great  property  has  its  romance,  too.  The  story 
is  that  the  Treadvvell  mine,  while  yet  little  more  than  a 
prospect  hole,  was  forced  upon  a  San  Francisco  builder, 
John  Treadwell,  in  1881,  to  satisfy  a  loan  of  $150.  The 
Treadwell  Company  makes  excellent  provision  for  its  men 
in  the  way  of  reading-rooms,  bath  houses,  bowling  alleys, 
billiard-rooms,  lecture  and  amusement  halls,  and  hospital 
accommodations.  Only  two  holidays,  Christmas  and  the 
Fourth  of  July,  are  recognised  In  these  mines,  the  work 
being  carried  on  day  and  night  on  all  other  days. 

Juneau,  which  is  across  the  narrow  channel  from  the 
Treadwell  mine,  is  the  centre  of  a  region  in  which  there 
were  at  the  time  of  our  v^isit,  6,000  men  engaged  in  min- 
ing and  prospecting.  New  strikes  and  recent  develop- 
ments in  what  are  known  as  the  Nowell  properties,  recently 
transferred  to  the  Treadwell  Company,  have  combined 
with  other  things  to  give  Juneau  something  of  a  boom. 
These  new  developments  on  the  Nowell  properties  in  Ber- 
ner  Bay,  made  during  the  summer  of  1904,  are  said  to 
open  a  still  larger  and  richer  deposit  of  gold  quartz  than 
that  found  in  the  Treadwell  mines,  and  possibly  the 
greatest  gold-quartz  deposit  in  the  world. 

Juneau  is  an  incorporated  town  of  about  2,000  people, 
thrifty,  attractive  in  appearance,  and  gives  promise  of 
growth  and  stability.  It  is  now  the  capital  of  Alaska,  all 
the  territorial  offices  having  been  removed  there  from  Sitka 
except  that  of  the  governor,  which  remains  at  Sitka  be- 


20 


ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 


cause  that  is  the  home  of  the  present  governor.  A  change 
in  the  incumbency  of  the  office  would  doubtless  change 
the  location  of  that  office  to  this  very  picturesque  city. 
Juneau  takes  its  name  from  Joseph  Juneau,  a  prospector, 
who  won  the  confidence  of  the  Indians,  and  learned  from 


''Mushing  "  over  White  Pass  in  1898 

them  where  they  got  the  gold  of  their  ornaments.  They 
took  him  to  what  is  now  known  as  Silver  Bow  Basin,  and 
then,  requiring  that  he  should  become  a  tribesman  and  pre- 
serve their  secret,  it  was  wnth  great  difficulty  that  he 
escaped  to  Sitka  to  report  his  great  find. 


THE  "INSIDE  PASSAGE"  21 

Late  in  the  evening  we  approached  what  looked  first  like 
a  small  forest  fire,  but  which  we  afterwards  discovered  to 
be  mosquito  smudges  around  the  tents  of  the  men  engaged 
in  clearing  the  ground  for  the  new  military  post  at  Haines 
Mission.  The  Government  was  preparing  here  for  a  four- 
company  post  which  is  to  be  the  principal  military  station 
in  Alaska.  As  evidence  of  the  fact  that  clearing  the 
ground  and  improving  a  farm  in  that  part  of  Alaska  is  a 
serious  business,  it  cost  the  Government  $195  an  acre  to 
clear  the  ground  for  the  post. 

When  we  awoke  on  the  morning  of  July  3,  the  Dol- 
phin lay  at  the  dock  in  Skagway  at  the  foot  of  the  cele- 
brated White  Pass,  over  whose  rugged  and  icy  heights 
thousands  of  pilgrims  to  the  Klondike  Mecca,  both  men 
and  women,  struggled  and  toiled  during  the  winter  of 
1897-98. 


II 

SKAGWAY  TO  DAWSON 

HOME  of  the  North  Wind"  rs  the  translation 
furnished  me  for  the  Anghcised  Indian  word 
Skagway,  apphed  to  the  town  at  the  head  of 
Lynn  Canal,  where  the  Alaska-bound  senatorial  party  dis- 
embarked on  the  morning  of  July  3.  But  the  north  wind 
was  not  at  home  that  day.  The  air  was  that  of  a  charm- 
ing summer  morning  in  Minnesota,  temperature  about  65, 
the  sky  clear  and  blue.  Of  course  the  poetic  idea  expressed 
in  the  name  of  the  place  suggested  its  Indian  origin  and 
an  Indian  legend,  and  this  is  what  they  told  me  about  it: 
An  old  Indian  chief  who  lived  here  stood  one  day  on  shore 
watching  his  son  trying  to  land  in  a  canoe.  The  wind 
swept  down  the  canyon  with  terrific  force,  but  he  was  a 
strong  lad  and  skilful,  and  his  father  had  little  fear.  The 
boy  was  blown  around  the  point,  however,  and  out  of 
sight,  A  little  later  his  canoe  was  seen  floating  bottom 
up.  Its  late  occupant  was  never  found.  And  so  the  old 
chief  named  the  place  Skagua,  which  means  Home  of  the 
North  Wind.  But  the  men  who  write  waybills  and  mark 
freight  boxes  and  spare  not,  have  made  it  Skagway. 

Skagway  lies  between  the  mountain  slopes  of  a  narrow 
canyon,  up  which  the  sea  has  crept  until  it  can  go  no  far- 
ther,  although  it  seems   to  be  making   repeated  efforts, 


SKAGWAY  TO  DAWSON  23 

as  the  tide  here  in  Lynn  Canal  rises  sixteen  to  eighteen 
feet.  Skagway  is  the  port  which  our  British  neighbours 
were  so  anxious  to  get  control  of,  as  this  is  naturally  the 
best  entrance  to  Dawson  and  all  the  British  Yukon.  In 
the  census  of  1900  it  had  a  population  of  3,117;  to-day 
about  1,200.  At  the  time  of  the  great  excitement  over 
the  Klondike,  in  the  winter  of  '97  and  '98,  this  little  val- 
ley from  the  water's  edge  to  the  foot  of  "  Dead  Horse 
Trail,"  two  miles  and  a  half  up  the  Skagway  River,  was 
covered  with  the  shacks  and  tents  of  10,000  stampeders, 
trying  to  get  their  supplies  packed  over  the  trail  or  wait- 
ing for  the  completion  of  the  wagon  road  then  under 
construction. 

In  the  long  June  and  July  days  there  is  no  lack  of  sun- 
shine and  daylight,  even  in  this  valley,  but  in  winter, 
when  the  sun  drops  low  in  the  southern  sky,  it  seems 
almost  to  leap  across  the  narrow  opening  toward  the 
south  from  the  mountain  peak  on  the  one  side  to  the 
mountain  peak  on  the  other.  It  is  visible  only  about 
twenty  minutes  on  the  shortest  days  and  the  stores  and 
offices  keep  the  electric  lights  burning  practically  all  day 
from  November  to  March. 

Captain  Moore,  a  citizen  of  Canada,  who  had  been 
prospecting  for  gold  in  the  Canadian  northwest  in  the 
year  1886,  was  far-seeing  enough  to  discover  that  the 
White  Pass  would  be  the  most  feasible  gateway  to  the 
British  interior,  in  case  important  gold  disco\eries  should 
be  made  there,  and  attempted  to  homestead  the  jiresent 
site    of    Skagway.    When    he    applied    to    the    Canailian 


24  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

authorities  for  the  privilege,  he  was  notified  that  the  land 
was  not  on  British  territory,  but  belonged  to  the  United 
States,  and  that  he  must  obtain  his  rights  from  that  Gov- 
ernment. This  his  son  subsequently  did,  but  in  that  trans- 
action the  British  authorities  placed  themselves  on  record 
as  recognising  the  title  of  the  United  States  to  territory 
which  Canada  afterwards  claimed,  but  doubtless  never 
would  have  claimed  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  Klondike 
discoveries. 

Skagway  was  found  to  be  literally  swathed  in  bunting. 
This,  however,  was  not  all  on  account  of  the  arrival  of 
the  senatorial  party.  Next  day  was  the  Fourth  of  July 
and  an  elaborate  programme  of  parades,  speeches,  games 
and  a  sham  battle  was  carried  out  by  these  disfranchised 
Americans  in  Alaska,  who  seem  to  take  more  interest  in 
the  national  holiday  and  in  the  old-time  patriotic  celebra- 
tion than  we  do  in  the  States. 

Monday  morning,  July  6,  our  party  took  the  train  on  the 
White  Pass  and  Yukon  route  for  Dawson.  This  is  a  nar- 
row-gauge road,  financed  by  British  capital,  but  constructed 
and  operated  by  Americans.  It  follows  at  the  outset  the 
route  taken  by  the  wagon  road,  the  construction  of  which 
was  commenced  by  George  A.  Brackett,  of  Minneapolis,  in 
the  fall  of  1897,  and  carried  by  him  nearly  to  the  summit 
of  the  range  before  the  railroad  company  had  organised 
and  overtaken  him.  The  wagon  road  was  sold  out  to 
the  railroad  company  and  the  railroad  was  completed 
within  a  year  from  Skagway  to  White  Horse,  a  distance 
of    112   miles.    It   climbs  within   a   track   distance   of   20 


White  Horse  Rapids 


26  ALASKA   AND    II 11-:  KLONDIKl^ 

miles  troiii  tide  water  to  a  height  of  2,940  feet,  with  a 
maximum  grade  of  4  per  cent,  and  an  average  of  3  per 
cent.  The  ride  over  the  White  Pass  route  is  an  experi- 
ence to  be  remembered,  not  that  the  engineering  diffi- 
culties o\'ercome  here  are  greater  than  those  mastered  by 
builders  of  the  mountain  roads  in  the  States,  but  the  sensa- 
tion of  bold  mountain  ascent  is  enhanced  by  the  quick  transi- 
tion from  sea  level  to  the  snow-capped  mountain  summit. 
While  scaling  the  walls  of  the  rugged  canyon  occasional 
glimpses  may  be  had  of  the  distant  sea  far  below  at  the 
mouth  of  the  gorge.  As  the  train  proceeds  along  its  nar- 
row roadw^ay  around  the  face  of  a  projecting  cliff  its 
movement  seems  more  like  a  flight  through  air  than  a 
hard  and  difficult  climb  up  a  mountainside.  A  foam- 
ing stream  plunges  downward  through  the  gorge,  while 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  canyon  beautiful  cascades 
drop  their  silvery  veils  hundreds  of  feet  down  the  face 
of  the  mountain.  Winding  along  the  opposite  precipice 
one  may  catch  occasional  glimpses  of  the  old  "  Dead 
Horse  Trail,"  over  which  thousands  of  resolute  men  and 
women  struggled  under  the  burden  of  their  heavy  packs, 
conveying  by  repeated  trips  across  the  summit  the  scanty 
supply  of  food  which  was  to  sustain  their  lives  until  they 
had  found  their  fortunes  in  the  sands  and  gravel  of  the 
Klondike  basin.  Horses  were  employed  in  great  num- 
bers on  this  trail,  and  cruelty  unspeakable  was  visited 
upon  these  faithful  beasts.  Insufficiently  fed,  they  often 
staggered  under  their  loads  of  200  or  250  pounds,  lost 
their  footing  on  the  narrow^  icy  path  and  were  dashed  to 


SKAGWAY  TO  DAWSON  27 

death  below,  while  hundreds  of  others  met  a  more  cruel 
fate  In  wicked  desertion  in  midwinter  by  their  owners  on 
the  bleak  and  wind-swept  waste  of  the  northern  slopes. 

After  a  long,  hard  pull  of  about  twenty  miles  and  last- 
ing three  hours,  the  violent  throbbing  of  the  engine  sud- 
denly ceases  and  the  train  comes  to  a  halt  at  the  summit, 
where  two  flags  float  from  tall  poles  set  about  twenty-five 
feet  apart.  Between  them,  driven  into  a  crevice  in  the 
rocks,  is  an  iron  stake,  the  inscription  on  the  top  of  which 
tells  us  that  here  Is  the  boundary  line  between  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  Since  the  arbitrators  have  decided 
the  Alaska  boundary  dispute  the  iron  stake  has  gi\en 
place  to  an  aluminum-bronze  post  about  two  and  one-half 
feet  in  height,  whose  forked  base  is  set  firmly  with  cement 
In  holes  drilled  in  the  solid  rock.  Similar  posts  placed  when 
practicable  at  intervals  of  half  a  mile,  will  mark  the  entire 
boundary  between  Alaska  and  the  British  possessions. 

Here,  at  the  very  outset  of  our  journey  through  British 
territory  to  the  great  mining  camp  of  the  north,  are  found 
those  representatives  of  Canadian  authority  whose  pres- 
ence brings  a  sense  of  security  to  the  law-abiding  man  ami 
a  feeling  of  terror  to  e\il-doers — the  Northwest  Mounted 
Police.  We  shall  meet  with  them  frequently  and  learn 
more  of  their  organisation  and  its  wonderful  efiiclency, 
but  that  they  are  here  holding  the  first  foot  of  territory 
to  which  their  (lo\crnment  can  lay  \alid  claim  Is  as  signifi- 
cant as  the  fact  that  there  are  no  represcnlatlxes  of  Ameri- 
can authority  within  twenty  miles. 

The  first  stop  Is  at  Lake  Bennett,  now  merely  a  statloii 


28 


ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 


and  a  watering  place,  but  once  the  site  of  a  city  of  tents. 
Here,  at  the  head  of  this  lake,  in  the  spring  of  '98,  5,000 
men  and  women  campcci  waiting  for  transportation  dow^n 


Bishop  Bompas 

the  lake  on  barges  or  on  rafts,  flat  boats,  scows  or  canoes 
of  their  own  construction.  The  advent  of  the  railroad 
changed  all  that  and  carried  this  traffic  eighty-five  miles 
farther  to  a  point  just  below  the  White  Horse  rapids. 


SKAGWAY  TO  DAWSON  29 

On  the  way  we  stop  again  at  Caribou  Crossing,  the 
point  at  which  boats  are  taken  for  the  Athn  mining 
district.  Here  is  a  httle  settlement  and  from  a  log  cabin 
squatted  on  the  sand  at  the  water's  edge  come  an  old 
gentleman,  clad  in  the  garb  of  a  bishop  of  the  Episcopal 
Church,  and  his  wife,  a  sweet-faced,  little  old  lady,  who 
is  to  take  leave  of  him  at  the  station  as  he  starts  on  one 
of  his  missionary  tours  among  the  English  churches  and 
Indian  missions  along  the  Yukon.  Bishop  William 
Bompas  of  the  Selkirk  diocese  came  from  England  in 
1865  to  relieve  a  missionary  stationed  at  Port  Simpson, 
which  was  then  an  important  trading  post  of  the  Hudson 
Bay  company.  He  remained  at  Port  Simpson  until  1874, 
when  he  returned  to  England  and  brought  out  his  bride, 
the  delicate  and  gentle,  but  courageous  and  faithful  little 
woman  who  dismisses  him  now  on  his  long  journey  with 
many  little  attentions  and  admonitions  as  to  the  care  of 
himself  while  on  his  mission.  Bishop  Bompas  is  now 
70  years  old;  his  diocese  extends  through  the  Yukon  ter- 
ritory and  a  part  of  northern  British  Columbia.  His  life 
has  been  spent  chiefly  among  the  Indians.  He  pays  a 
tribute  of  praise  to  the  Hudson  Bay  company  in  its  rela- 
tions to  the  Indians,  speaks  of  the  good  faith  which  that 
institution  has  always  maintained  with  them  and  of  the 
assistance  which  it  has  rendered  the  church  in  its  mission- 
ary work  among  them.  For  over  forty  years  he  has 
travelled  along  the  rivers  and  over  the  linlian  trails  in 
summer  and  in  winter,  in  canoes  and  on  snowshoes  and 
with   dog  teams,   with    Indians   for  his  guides   and  com- 


30  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

pniiions.  ami  has  found  these  simple  people  models  of 
hospitality  and  kindness  and  devotion,  where  not  corrupted 
by  the  white  man.  He  does  not  regard  his  life  thus  spent 
as  one  of  hardship.  It  has  brought  him  health  and  much 
happiness.  He  speaks  with  enthusiasm  of  the  beauties 
of  the  rivers  and  mountains,  and  of  the  beautiful  valley 
of  the  Peace  River  lying  within  the  borders  of  his  ex- 
tensive diocese.  But  it  is  with  considerable  difficulty  that 
he  is  persuaded  to  tell  us  something  of  his  long  journeys 
o\cr  the  cold  and  trackless  expanse  traversed  by  the  great 
Mackenzie,  to  whose  mouth  on  the  Arctic  Ocean  his 
mission  to  the  native  hunters  and  trappers  has  carried  him 
on  more  than  one  occasion.  His  tones  are  low  and  his 
manner  diffident  as  he  yields  wMth  apparent  reluctance 
to  every  effort  to  obtain  from  him  a  story  of  his  life  on 
the  far  frontier.  His  hand  fumbles  nervously  among  the 
straps  of  his  leathern  bags  trimmed  with  Indian  bead- 
work,  the  thank-offering  of  his  devoted  and  affectionate 
Indian  followers.  Caribou  Crossing,  so  remote,  so  dreary 
and  desolate  to  the  traveller,  does  not  seem  so  unattractive 
to  the  quaint  and  cheery  old  lady,  who  has  for  over  thirty 
years  shared  the  fortunes  and  the  hardships  which  have 
fallen  to  the  lot  of  this  servant  of  the  church.  "  It  is  very 
nice  here,"  she  says.  "  I  like  it  better  on  the  other  side 
of  the  riv^er,"  pointing  to  her  humble  cabin  set  on  the 
opposite  bank.   "  It  is  not  so  sandy  over  there." 

Left  to  himself,  the  bishop  spends  much  time  in  read- 
ing the  "  Dictionary  of  the  Church  of  England  "  and  one 
who  knows  something  of  his  history  informs  me  that  he 


SKAGWAY  TO  DAWSON  31 

is  an  author  of  some  note  in  church  circles,  prominent 
among  his  works  being  one  entitled  "  Northern  Lights 
on  the  Bible."  He  travelled  with  us  the  remainder  of 
the  day  and  the  next  and  it  was  noticed  that  as  Indian 
settlements  are  passed  along  the  river  he  seemed  to  be 
recognised  from  shore  and  his  hands  are  lifted  and  his 
lips  move,  as  if  in  benediction  of  the  rude  and  simple  peo- 
ple who  seem  to  be  greeting  him  as  he  passes. 

White  Horse,  the  terminus  of  the  railroad  on  the  Lewes 
River,  is  a  neat  Canadian  village  where  are  great  ware- 
houses in  which  have  been  stored  large  quantities  of  pro- 
visions and  other  supplies,  including  unusual  shipments 
of  heavy  machinery  waiting  for  the  opening  of  the  river. 
The  mo\-ement  of  mining  machinery  is  just  now  particu- 
larly heavy,  because  for  a  short  time  the  Dominion  Gov- 
ernment has  remitted  the  duties  in  order  to  encourage 
the  introduction  of  machinery  into  the  mining  regions. 
The  distinguishing  features  of  the  village  are  extensive 
warehouses  along  the  river  bank  from  which  the  Dawson 
boats  are  loaded;  a  station  of  the  Northwest  Mounted 
Police,  with  substantial  log  barracks  laid  out  in  military 
style  and  kept  with  military  neatness  and  cleanliness; 
grounds  prepared  for  baseball,  cricket,  tennis  ami  other 
outdoor  sports  of  which  the  Britishers  arc  so  fond;  a  read- 
ing-room well  equipped,  a  Government  telegraph  station 
and  a  number  of  substantial  store  buildings;  and  every- 
where there  is  that  trlmncss  and  orderliness  which  e\-idencc 
the  efficient  administration  of  authority. 

In   the  early   evening  we   go   aboard   the    Yukoncr,    a 


32  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

boat  belonging  to  the  same  company  which  operates  the 
railroad,  and  forming  part  of  its  line  between  Skagway 
and  Dawson.  These  boats  are  equal  to  any  on  the  upper 
Mississippi,  furnish  comfortable  accommodations,  serve 
excellent  meals  and  rob  travel  on  the  Yukon  and  its 
tributaries  of  every  anticipated  hardship.  The  first-class 
passenger  fare  from  Seattle  to  Dawson  over  this  route 
is  $80  and  from  Dawson  to  Seattle  $100.  The  differ- 
ence is  due  mainly  to  the  longer  time  required  for  the 
trip  up  the  river. 

In  these  long,  early  July  days  the  sun  stays  with  us  until 
nearly  10  o'clock  and  returns  before  three,  while  its  slant- 
ing rays  seem  to  lighten  the  upper  air  the  whole  night 
through. 

There  is  so  much  to  interest  and  so  much  of  daylight 
to  improve  that  sleep  comes  only  after  repeated  invita- 
tions and  one  is  reminded  of  the  expressive  remark  of  a 
returning  Yukoner  who  has  been  spending  tehe  winter  in 
the  States,  and  whose  husband  awaits  her  at  Dawson. 
With  a  genuine  Bowery  accent  she  speaks  oi  the  unbroken 
daylight  of  midsummer  and  adds  that  humankind  are  not 
the  only  ones  inconvenienced  on  their  first  arrival  by 
inability  to  sleep.  The  imported  animals  and  fowls,  too, 
seem  at  first  to  experience  the  same  confusion  of  the 
orderly  habits  which  prevail  elsewhere,  for,  says  she, 
"  there  is  no  night  and  de  very  chickens,  why  dey  walks 
demselves  to  det."  And  just  at  this  time  not  only  is  the 
sunlight  almost  constant,  but  during  the  sun's  short  ab- 
sences the  moon  shines  with   an   effulgeitce  which  seems 


u 


D 


34  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

never  to  have  been  observed  in  lower  latitudes,  and  tempts 
the  man  with  the  camera  to  try  its  effects  upon  the  sensi- 
tised film  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  with  results  which 
are  highly  satisfactory  as  photographs,  although  they  can- 
not be  so  successfully  reproduced  in  half-tones. 

Midnight  of  July  7  finds  us  at  Fort  Selkirk  on  the 
bank  of  the  Lewes  River,  upon  which  we  have  travelled 
from  White  Horse  northwestward  to  the  Pelly,  which 
here  comes  in  from  the  east  and  together  wMth  the  Lewes 
makes  up  the  Yukon.  Selkirk  is  an  old  Hudson  Bay 
trading  post  and  we  are  interested  in  it  in  passing  because 
we  are  told  that  here  are  located  the  most  successful  farms 
in  the  British  Yukon.  One  farmer  at  this  point  is  reported 
to  have  made  a  clear  profit  of  $3,000  during  the  past  year 
on  his  crops  of  hay  and  potatoes,  for  which  he  finds  a 
market  in  Dawson.  His  success  is  said  to  be  encourag- 
ing others  to  seek  their  fortunes  in  agriculture  at  this 
point  as  surer  than  prospecting  for  gold  along  the  creeks. 

The  Yukon  is  a  deep,  rapid  stream,  carrying  more  water 
here  than  flows  in  the  Mississippi  between  the  St.  Croix 
and  Lake  Pepin.  Its  banks  are  high,  and,  for  the  most 
part,  v/ooded  with  stunted  spruce  and  birch  and  large 
willows,  affording  ample  fuel  supply  and  serviceable  in 
mining,  but  not  large  enough  to  make  merchantable  lum- 
ber in  any  considerable  quantity.  The  upper  Yukon  boats 
are  supplied  with  fuel  from  woodyards  located  at  con- 
venient intervals.  Two  or  three  times  a  day  the  boat  is 
tied  to  the  shore  while  the  Indian  deckhands  take  on 
ten  or  fifteen   cords   for  the   furnaces   for  the  next  run. 


36  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

Here  in  its  upper  stretches  the  riv^er  flows  among  hills 
which  rise  at  times  almost  to  the  dignity  of  mountains, 
and  which  are  often  covered  well  up  their  slopes  with 
spruce  and  birch.  There  are  no  evidences  of  animal  life 
visible  except  a  few  birds.  Among  these  are  the  robin, 
the  thrush,  the  meadow  lark  and  the  eagle.  Deer,  cari- 
bou, mountain  sheep  and  bears  are  found  on  the  moun- 
tains and  the  rivers  abound  in  fish,  of  which  the  most 
common  are  the  greyling  and  the  salmon. 

One  can  almost  persuade  himself,  on  this  journey  down 
the  great  Yukon,  that  he  is  an  original  explorer,  wander- 
ing in  the  primeval  w'ilds.  Nature  is  unmarred  by  the 
hand  of  man  and  the  vast  solitude  is  impressive.  Occa- 
sionally, at  intervals  of  hours,  there  may  be  seen  a  solitary 
cabin  of  a  woodchopper  and  at  long  intervals  on  the  upper 
stretches  of  this  lonesome  stream,  flowing  forever,  silent 
and  deep,  toward  the  north,  we  find  the  cabins  of  a 
Mounted  Police  station,  or  a  group  of  three  or  four  tents 
occupied  by  ten  or  a  dozen  Indians,  who  come  to  the  Yukon 
in  summer  to  fish,  but  that  is  all.  The  scene  is  never 
uninteresting,  however.  The  river  is  tortuous  and  rapid, 
its  banks  generally  green  with  luxuriant  vegetation  and 
the  meadows  gay  with  an  endless  variety  of  flowers,  one 
species  known  as  the  fire  weed  spreading  a  flame-like 
colour  over  patches  of  hundreds  of  acres  of  sloping  coun- 
try. Again  the  river  leaves  the  rolling  meadow  lands 
and  pours  its  flood  against  the  solid  masonry  of  earth 
on  whose  seared  and  broken  face  is  written  for  the'  geol- 
ogist  the   history   of   time.    Narrow   gorges   are   entered 


a 


791S4 


38  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

and  at  one  place  we  are  treated  to  the  sensation  of  "  run- 
nini;  the  rapids  "  through  which  the  widest  channel  he- 
tween  the  rocky  walls  is  scarcely  more  than  twice  the  width 
of  our  well-handled  boat. 

If  we  are  of  a  practical  turn  of  mind,  we  may  question 
the  economy  of  nature  and  wonder  whether  these  im- 
mense areas  of  unpeopled  wilderness  will  ever  serve  any 
human  purpose,  or  whether  they  are  only  the  foundations 
of  earth  upon  which  have  been  built  the  habitable  and 
inhabited  portions  of  the  world.  The  face  of  nature  is 
fair  enough,  surely,  at  this  season,  and  sufficiently  pro- 
ductive of  vegetable  life  to  suggest  the  possibility  that 
this  countr^^_jT]^,y_soni£_da^^bej7]ad£j2r^  by 

others  than  the  daring  seekers  after^old.  But  nature  has 
other  moods'  and  her  wintry  aspect  is  not  so  kindly.  Still, 
I  am  inclined  to  think  that,  if  the  treasures  of  gold  hold 
out,  man,  with  his  wonderful  powers  of  adaptation,  will 
utilise  considerable  areas  of  the  unquestionably  fertile  val- 
ley lands  of  this  region  in  producing  many  of  the  vegetables 
and  dairy  and  meat  products  which  the  mining  camps  must 
now  transport  over  thousands  of  miles  at  great  expense. 
But  of  the  agricultural  possibilities  of  these  northern  lands, 
and  particularly  of  Alaska,  I  shall  present  some  evidence 
on  a  later  page. 

As  we  pass  the  mouth  of  the  White  River  flowing  in 
from  the  west  we  observe  the  appropriateness  of  its  name, 
for  it  immediately  imparts  to  the  Yukon  its  own  colour, 
and  from  that  point  to  its  mouth  the  waters  of  the  Yukon 
boil  and  roll  the  sands  and  mud  of  the  soft  bottom  as  does 


SKAGWAY  TO  DAWSON  39 

the  Missouri  throughout  the  greater  part  of  its  course. 
At  the  mouth  of  the  Stewart  River  we  pass  the  scene  of 
the  earhest  important  mining  operations  on  the  British 
Yukon,  where  placer  mining  was  carried  on  prior  to  1887, 
after  which  the  Forty-Mile  district  nearer  Dawson  became 
the  centre  of  interest  until  the  Klondike  overshadowed 
everything  else. 

Dawson  is  reached  in  the  afternoon  of  July  8.  It  lies 
on  a  broad,  gently  sloping  bench  under  an  encircling  hill 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  river.  Its  site  is  that  of  an  old 
glacier.  As  it  comes  into  view  it  has  the  appearance  of 
a  considerable  city.  Conspicuous  objects  are  the  large 
warehouses  of  the  transportation  and  trading  companies. 
Along  the  shore  numerous  river  boats  lie  against  the  bank, 
and  our  landing  is  effected  across  the  decks  of  two  other 
boats.  While  the  early  rush  has  preceded  us,  the  arrival 
of  the  boat  from  the  upper  river  Is  still  an  object  of 
interest.  Men  struggle  through  the  crowd  and  come  rush- 
ing on  board  to  greet  the  new  arrivals;  wives  and  children 
who  have  been  "  outside  "  all  winter  meet  husbands  and 
fathers,  and  friends  clasp  hands  with  friends  with  many 
demonstrations  of  joy  at  the  ending  of  the  long  and  dis- 
tant separation. 

As  you  step  ashore  you  will  probably  experience  a  feel- 
ing that  you  are  a  little  farther  "  out  of  the  world  "  than 
you  have  ever  been  before,  although  you  may  have  been 
something  of  a  globe-trotter.  In  spite  of  the  throng 
and  the  sight  of  a  face  or  two  that  you  may  have  known 
before  and  although  you  hear  your  own  language,  Dawson, 


40 


ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 


lying  almost  upon  the  Arctic  Circle,  had  always  seemed 
to  iiic  one  of  the  most  remote  outposts  on  the  edge  of  the 
habitable  world.  But  how  accessible  after  all — in  summer 
one  thousand  miles  of  the  quiet  waters  of  the  "  inside 
passage"  from  Seattle  to  Skagway  occupying  four  days; 


Five  Finger  Rapids  on  the  Upper  Yukon 

112  miles  of  railroad  travel  over  the  coast  range  requir- 
ing about  ten  hours;  and  450  miles  down  the  Lewes 
and  the  Yukon  from  White  Horse  to  Dawson  consum- 
ing less  than  two  days;  in  winter  the  last  division  of  this 
route,  between  White  Horse  and  Dawson,  is  covered  by 
stages  and  sleds  drawn  by  horses  and  accommodating  nine 
passengers.  Roadhouses  are  maintained  at  frequent  inter- 
vals and  the  tri-weekly  stages  are  well  patronised. 


Ill 

A  "  CHEE-CHA-KO  "  IN  THE  KLONDIKE 

IN  Dawson  you  are  either  tolerated  as  a  "  Chee- 
cha-ko  "  or  you  have  established  social  standing  as 
a  "  Sour  Dough."  Pedigree,  which  is  often  worth 
so  much  in  other  places,  "  cuts  no  ice  "  where  that  com- 
modity is  perpetual  at  a  depth  of  two  feet.  Indeed,  it  is 
wiser,  as  a  rule,  not  to  enquire  too  closely  into  ante- 
cedents or  pedigree,  and  as  for  money  as  a  guarantee  of 
social  position — any  one  is  likely  to  have  that  to-morrow 
if  he  hasn't  got  it  to-day.  A  "  Chee-cha-ko  "  is  only  a 
tenderfoot,  but  to  belong  to  the  real  aristocracy  of  the 
"  Sour  Dough  "  one  must  have  spent  a  year  "  inside  "  and 
have  some  personal  experience  of  a  winter  in  a  Yukon  or 
Alaskan  mining  camp. 

The  senatorial  "  Chee-cha-kos  "  who  landed  in  Dawson 
July  8,  were  expected — for  Dawson  has  telegraphic  com- 
munication with  the  outside  world  and  daily  newspapers 
— and  were  very  cordially  received.  The  warmth  of 
the  welcome  extended  to  the  representatives  of  the  United 
States  Senate  was  nowhere  more  marked  in  Alaska  than 
here  on  the  British  sitlc  under  the  L'nioii  Jack.  A  major- 
ity of  the  people  of  Dawson,  il  now  sulijccts  ol  the  crown, 
were  at  one  time  citizens  ol  the  I'nitcd  States,  but  it 
would  be  ungracious  to  suggest  that  that  fact  had  any  bear- 

41 


42  ALASKA  AND  THK  KLONDIKE 

ing  upon  the  interest  aroused  by  the  arrival  of  this  official 
party. 

The  first  sensation  experienced  in  Dawson  was  that  of 
surprise  at  the  size  and  appearance  of  the  town.  With 
a  population  of  about  7,000,  with  streets  solidly  built  up 
for  nearly  a  mile  along  the  river,  and  business  extending 
back  from  the  river  front  to  Third  Street;  with  graded 
streets,  water  service  and  sidewalks  and  comfortable  log 
and  frame  storehouses  and  dwellings,  the  impression  cre- 
ated is  one  of  solidity  and  permanence,  which  I  venture  to 
say  is  not  generally  entertained  by  those  who  have  not  seen 
this  metropolis  of  the  Yukon.  There  are  no  stone  build- 
ings and  but  one  brick  building  in  the  town,  so  far  as  I 
observed,  and  not  a  square  yard  of  plastering.  Dawson 
is  built  on  what  is  doubtless  an  old  glacier,  now  covered 
with  a  deposit  of  earth  and  gravel,  washed  down  from 
the  encircling  hills.  Two  feet  beneath  the  surface  the 
excavator  strikes  the  perpetual  ice.  Foundations  laid 
upon  the  ice  are  necessarily  insecure.  While  the  general 
surface  of  the  ground  does  not  thaw  out  to  a  depth  of 
more  than  two  feet  in  summer,  an  excavation  results  in 
further  thawing  of  the  surface  at  that  point  and  a  con- 
sequent settling  of  the  foundations,  which  are  raised  again 
by  the  freezing  in  winter.  The  outer  foundations,  too, 
are  subject  to  greater  variations  than  those  under  the 
centre  of  the  building  and  particularly  those  on  the  south 
side,  so  that,  while  there  may  be  little  change  by  reason 
of  freezing  or  thawing  in  some  parts  of  the  building,  in 
other  parts  there  is  considerable.  This  would  ultimately 


44  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

destroy  a  building  constructed  ol  brick  or  stone  and  loosen 
the  plastering  on  the  walls  of  a  wooden  building. 

Nearly  all  kinds  of  mercantile  business  are  carried  on 
in  Dawson.  The  leaders,  of  course,  are  the  old  Yukon 
River  trading  and  transportation  companies.  These  are 
the  Northern  Commercial  company,  and  the  North  Amer- 
ican Transportation  and  Trading  company.  These  com- 
panies bring  their  stock  of  goods  up  the  Yukon  River 
from  St.  Michael,  and  were  engaged  in  business  here 
before  the  White  Pass  road  opened  a  shorter  route. 
Ihey  do  a  freighting  and  transportation  business  on  the 
river  and  were  the  beneficiaries  of  a  large  trade  before 
the  Klondike  was  discovered.  Their  establishments  are, 
in  reality,  department  stores;  they  carry  everything  needed, 
from  a  miner's  thawing  machine  to  a  watch ;  from  Indian 
mukluks  to  jewelry  and  laces;  from  hard-tack  and  bacon  to 
gentlemen's  dress  suits,  in  one  of  which  a  member  of  our 
party — not  prepared  to  find  that  such  things  are  required 
up  near  the  pole — was  arrayed  for  the  governor's  social 
function.  It  cannot  be  said  of  Dawson  that  business  is 
very  lively  there  just  now.  The  boom  is  over,  but  there  is  a 
fair  volume  of  trade  on  a  reasonably  permanent  basis. 
During  the  summer  of  1904  Dawson  and  the  Klondike 
district  are  said  to  have  lost  2,000  to  3,000  people  by  the 
rush  to  the  new  diggings  at  Fairbanks  on  the  Tanana. 
But  that  is  the  fortune  of  the  mining  camp;  a  large  part 
of  its  floating  population  is  here  to-day  and  gone  to- 
morrow. 

The  public  buildings  of  Dawson  are  exceedingly  credit- 


A  "  CHEE-CHA-KO  "  IN  THE  KLONDIKE    45 

able.  They  consist  of  the  post-office,  which  serves  the 
postal  department  on  the  first  floor  and  the  customs  and 
other  Dominion  departments  on  the  second;  a  fine  eight- 
room  public-school  building;  what  is  known  as  the  ad- 
ministration building — the  office  building  of  the  Yukon 
territory;  the  municipal  courthouse;  the  governor's  ele- 
gant residence;  the  Mounted  Police  barracks  and  others. 
The  schoolhouse  cost  $40,000,  the  administration  build- 
ing $50,000,  and  altogether  about  $250,000  have  been 
expended  here  in  public  buildings.  Dawson  is  not  with- 
out churches,  and  the  strict  observance  of  Sunday  is  some- 
thing worthy  of  remark,  although  not  unusual  under 
the  British  flag.  The  day  following  our  arrival  wit- 
nessed great  demonstrations  of  welcome  in  honour  of 
Evangeline  Booth  of  the  Salvation  Army,  whose  organisa- 
tion has  a  strong  garrison  at  this  point.  Miss  Booth 
during  her  stay  was  a  guest  of  the  governor  and  his  wife, 
and  was  honoured  with  an  official  address  of  welcome. 

Dawson  lies  north  of  the  64th  degree  of  north  latitude 
and  experiences  as  wide  differences  of  temperature,  prob- 
ably, as  are  known  in  any  inhabited  portion  of  the  globe. 
The  thermometer  had  registered  90  above  a  few  days 
before  our  arrival  and  two  days  of  our  stay  were  uncom- 
fortably hot  at  midday.  In  winter  60  or  70  below  is  nol 
a  very  rare  experience.  And  yet  the  "  Sour  Doughs  " 
speak  with  real  enthusiasm  of  the  winter  climate.  "  It  is 
all  right  here  in  winter,"  said  our  hospitable  host  at  the 
Regina,  "  except  when  It  moderates  sometimes  anil  the 
temperature  rises  to  25  or  30  below.   You  see.  It  feels  so 


46  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

much  like  spring  our  people  foolishly  expose  themselves  and 
catch  cold."  I  can  bear  no  testimony  to  Dawson's  win- 
ter climate;  I  am  only  a  "  Chee-cha-ko  ";  but  I  can  testify 
as  to  five  perfectly  glorious  days  there  in  July. 

I  was  surprised,  too,  to  find  the  markets  so  well  sup- 
plied with  fresh  fruits,  vegetables,  meats  and  all  kiniis 
of  provisions,  though  not  at  prices  which  prevail  in 
Minneapolis.  For  instance,  eggs  w^ere  quoted,  as  the 
market  reporters  say,  at  $i  to  $1.50  a  dozen;  butter, 
$1  a  pound;  flour,  $14  a  barrel;  beef,  50  to  80  cents 
a  pound  by  the  quarter;  ham,  42  cents;  bread,  two 
loaves  for  25  cents;  sugar,  10  cents  a  pound;  oranges, 
50  cents  to  $1  a  dozen;  potatoes,  10  cents,  although  a 
short  time  prior  they  were  1 8  to  20  cents  a  pound.  These 
are  summer  prices,  when  transportation  is  open.  In  win- 
ter they  are  multiplied  by  two  or  three,  if  the  supply 
hasn't  run  out.  Shoes  and  clothing  may  be  obtained  al- 
most as  cheaply  as  in  Seattle,  but  anything  that  is  of  a 
perishable  character  costs  money,  and  this  is  true  of  some 
things  that  are  not  perishable.  Hay  has  been  as  high 
as  $300  a  ton  in  Dawson,  and  was  quoted  at  from  $80 
to  $90  at  the  time  of  our  visit,  and  other  kinds  of  feed 
and  forage  aT~corresponding  prices.  It  costs  so  much  to 
feed  a  horse  in  Dawson  in  winter  that  it  is  cheaper  to  shoot 
the  horse  in  the  fall  and  import  a  new  one  in  the  spring, 
and  that  is  sometimes  done.  Lumber  is  $50  a  thousand; 
hardware  prices  correspond.  That  one  of  the  senatorial 
party  hesitated  to  order  more  than  one  egg  for  his  first 
breakfast  lest  he  might  soon  exhaust  the  committee's  ap- 


60 


48  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

propriation,  may  he  explained  by  the  fact  that  there  have 
been  times  when  eggs  were  worth  $2  apiece  in  Dawson. 
In  this  far-away,  isolated  country  the  people  are  thrown 
almost  wholly  upon  their  own  resources  for  their  winter 
amusement,  which  becomes  a  necessity  to  successful  resist- 
ance of  the  depression  which  often  seizes  upon  those  who 
are  shut  off  so  completely  from  sharing  in  the  pleasures 
and  occupations  of  the  outside  world.  It  therefore  follows 
that  Dawson  has  a  good  theatre,  an  athletic  clubhouse 
for  winter  sports  and  athletic  grounds  well  prepared  for 
baseball,  cricket  and  tennis.  The  champions  of  the  prize 
ring  find  many  interested  in  their  exhibitions  here  and  the 
event  of  the  week  prior  to  our  arrival  had  been  a  fight  to 
a  finish.  A  peculiar  institution  is  the  town  crier,  known 
as  "  Uncle  John,"  who  parades  the  streets  with  a  mega- 
phone, an  improvement  on  a  bell,  and  announces  the  hour 
and  place  of  forthcoming  events.  The  long  midsummer 
days  simplify  the  arrangements  of  this  character  materi- 
ally. The  baseball  crank  and  the  office  boy  are  not  com- 
pelled to  devise  excuses  for  neglect  of  their  business  in  the 
middle  of  the  afternoon  in  order  to  witness  a  baseball  game. 
The  game  does  not  begin  until  8  o'clock  in  the  evening, 
and  the  theatre,  recognising  it  as  a  stiff  competitor,  does 
not  ring  up  its  curtain  until  10  o'clock.  This  means,  of 
course,  that  the  play  is  not  over  until  12.30  or  i  A.  M., 
but  inasmuch  as  the  night  is  nearly  as  light  as  the  day 
no  inconvenience  is  suffered  on  that  account.  It  necessarily 
follows,  however,  that  business  is  not  generally  resumed 
as  early  the  next  morning  as  it  is  where  the  occupations  of 


A  "  CHEE-CHA-KO  "  IN  THE  KLONDIKE    49 

the  day  are  taken  care  of  during  the  day  and  those  of  the 
night  are  given  their  proper  hours. 

It  was  a  "  Chee-cha-ko,"  of  course,  who,  when  asked 
if  he  wanted  to  "  see  the  town,"  said :  "  Yes,  of  course,  but 
I  never  go  to  '  see  the  town  '  by  dayhght,"  He  was  in- 
formed that  he  must  see  it  by  dayhght  or  not  at  all;  or, 
he  might  wait  six  months,  when  he  couldn't  see  it  by  day- 
light, unless  he  was  mighty  quick  about  it.  Dawson  is  on 
a  parallel  with  the  centre  of  Iceland,  and  the  winter  days 
are  so  short  that  school  children  are  obliged  to  carry  lan- 
terns to  light  their  way  to  and  from  school.  You  may 
be  surprised  to  find  that  Dawson  has  about  400  pupils  ir 
her  public  school,  and  that  as  evidence  of  the  up-to-date- 
ness with  which  they  are  conducted  they  are  thoroughly 
trained  in  the  fire  drill.  Dawson  also  boasts  a  Carnegie 
public  library,  the  one  nearest  to  the  North  Pole. 

The  town  of  Dawson  extends  back  from  the  river  bank 
half  a  mile  and  well  up  the  slopes  of  the  encircling  hill 
or  mountain,  the  extreme  summit  of  which  is  called  the 
dome.  Here  on  the  21st  of  June  great  crowds  repair 
to  witness  the  midnight  sun.  \'isitors  are  promised  a 
grand  prospect  from  this  dome  and  up  its  steep  ascent 
Mr.  Brackett,  Senator  Patterson,  of  Colorado,  and 
I  climbed,  one  bright,  clear  day.  The  distance  from 
the  hotel  to  the  summit  is  about  three  miles,  but 
the  magnificent  view  afforded  from  this  elevation 
was  worth  the  effort.  Stretching  away  to  flic  north- 
west could  be  traced  the  winding  course  ol  (he  Yukon 
on     its    way    to    its    extreme     northern     point     at     I'Ort 


50  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

Yukon,  where  it  crosses  the  Arctic  Circle.  On  the  north 
and  east  were  visible,  nearly  lOO  miles  away,  the  snowy 
peaks  of  the  great  world's  ridge,  which  sweeps  northward 
from  the  plateau  of  Mexico,  rises  into  the  heights  of  the 
Rockies  and  is  perpetuated  in  the  northern  chain  of  moun- 
tains across  British  America  to  the  Arctic  Ocean.  On  the 
southeast  lies  the  valley  of  the  Klondike  and  its  tributaries, 
the  great  gold  field,  which  has  lured  tens  of  thousands  of 
eager  and  hopeful  "  argonauts  "  and  which,  since  its  dis- 
covery eight  years  ago,  has  contributed  over  $100,000,000 
to  the  world's  supply  of  the  precious  metal. 

If  any  one  brings  to  Dawson  the  idea  that  life  and 
property  are  not  safe  in  this  community,  that  desperate 
characters  throng  the  streets  and  that  disorder  prevails 
day  and  night,  he  will  soon  discover  his  mistake.  A  more 
orderly,  law-abiding  community  it  would  be  difficult  to  find. 
There  was  no  key  to  my  room  at  the  hotel  and  when  I 
asked  for  one  it  was  found  with  difficulty.  "  We  never 
think  of  locking  our  doors  here,"  was  the  explanation, 
and  I  found  this  to  be  true  in  private  houses,  as  well  as 
in  public.  I  began  to  look  around  me  for  the  reason. 
Surely;  I  thought,  the  leopards  who  come  to  this  far-away 
country  have  not  changed  their  spots;  there  must  be  among 
the  promiscuous  throng  some  thieves;  crime  can  hardly 
have  lost  its  attractions  for  all  the  adventurers  who  flock 
to  this  far  frontier.  If  this  were  simply  a  mining  camp 
with  only  a  few  tents,  where  justice  was  administered  in 
the  rude  and  simple  way  usually  pursued  where  society 
is  but  crudely  organised,  such  confidence  in  the  safety  of 


A  "  CHEE-CHA-KO  "  IN  THE  KLONDIKE    51 

one's  possessions  wherever  he  might  leave  them  would 
not  appear  so  remarkable,  but  this  is  a  city  of  7,000  people. 
I  found  the  reason  I  was  looking  for  at  the  south  end 
of  the  city,  where  were  flying  the  flags  of  the  Northwest 
Mounted  Police.  Here  are  the  barracks  of  this  splendid 
organisation  under  the  command  of  Major  Z.  T.  Wood, 
whose  initials  stand  for  the  name  of  a  former  president  of 
the  United  States,  from  whom  he  is  descended.  Major 
Wood  is  from  Nova  Scotia,  but  there  courses  through 
his  veins  the  blood  of  Zachary  Taylor.  His  family  re- 
moved to  Halifax  after  the  war  on  account  of  their  irrecon- 
cilable feeling  towards  its  results.  In  1895  when  the 
Forty-Mile  district  on  the  British  side  was  attracting 
attention  as  a  mining  region,  the  Dominion  Government 
sent  up  a  small  force  of  Northwest  Mounted  Police  to 
administer  law  and  preserve  order.  So  inaccessible  was 
this  country  at  that  time  from  Canada  that  by  special 
permission  of  our  Government  these  men  were  brought 
by  the  way  of  St.  Michael  and  up  the  Yukon.  To-day 
there  are  fifty-five  police  stations  in  the  Yukon  territory 
having  three  men  each,  besides  the  garrisons  at  Dawson 
and  White  Horse.  These  stations  are  scattered  along  the 
Yukon  and  through  the  mining  districts.  A  weekly  patrol 
is  maintained  between  Dawson  and  White  Horse,  from 
outpost  to  outpost,  and  at  all  the  roadhouscs  on  the  winter 
trail  which  connects  these  posts  a  register  is  kept  where 
the  passengers  arc  re(]uired  to  register  at  every  stop,  in 
order  that  when  it  may  be  necessary  to  locate  any  one  for 
whom  enquiry  is  made,  his  whereabouts  at  certain  times 


52 


ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 


may  be  tletinitcly  known.  Every  boat,  scow  or  skiff  leav- 
ing the  upper  lakes  for  Dawson  in  summer  or  leaving 
Dawson  for  the  lower  river,  is  registered  and  the  names 
and  addresses  of  the  passengers  taken.    In   all  cases  of 


Northwest  Mounted  Police 


accidents  resulting  in  death  and  in  cases  of  suicide  and 
murder  the  police  exercise  not  only  the  duties  of  a  police 
magistrate  but  of  coroner  and  make  full  enquiry.  On 
the  arrival  of  boats  they  assist  the  customs  officers  and  in 
Dawson  serve  as  a  police  force  for  that  city.  The  men 
are  enlisted  for  five  years  with  the  privilege  of  re-enlist- 
ment for  one,   two  or  three  years,  as  they  desire.  This 


A  "  CHEE-CHA-KO  "  IN  THE  KLONDIKE     S3 

force  is  recruited  largely  from  the  best  families  of  Eng- 
land and  Canada  and  includes  not  only  fine  specimens  of 
manhood,  physically,  but  among  the  number  are  men  from 
the  great  universities  and  colleges. 

Dawson  is  not  a  no-license  town;  dance-halls  and  bar- 
rooms are  sufficiently  numerous,  and  other  resorts  of  vice, 
all  under  close  restraint.  Public  gambling  is  not  tolerated, 
and  Major  Wood,  who  is  a  member,  by  virtue  of  his 
office,  of  the  Yukon  council,  introduced,  while  we  were 
there,  a  bill  to  prevent  women  from  frequenting  bar- 
rooms, to  deny  to  dance-halls  the  power  to  take  out  liquor 
licenses,  prohibit  public  gambling,  to  close  all  side  doors 
and  back  doors,  chutes  and  dumb  waiters,  to  remove 
screens  during  the  prohibited  hours  and  closing  saloons 
from  12  o'clock  Saturday  night  until  6  o'clock  Monday 
morning.  The  penalties  range  from  $50  to  $100,  with 
forfeiture  of  license  for  a  second  offence.  Of  course,  this 
measure  provoked  a  loud  roar  of  protest  from  the  saloon- 
keepers and  gamblers  and  the  dance-hall  proprietors,  but 
the  bill  represented  the  ideas  of  a  department  which  has 
a  high  reputation  for  efficiency,  and  if  the  council  saw  fit 
to  enact  into  law  what  he  proposed  for  the  promotion  of 
the  peace  of  Dawson,  Major  Wood  has  the  power  and 
the  disposition  to  enforce  it. 

During  the  summer  of  1904,  the  Yukon  council  sub- 
mitted to  the  voters  of  Dawson  a  proposition  to  rescind 
the  charter  of  the  city  and  take  the  administration  of 
the  affairs  of  the  town  into  the  hands  of  the  council.  A 
large  number  of  the  most   important  interests   favoured 


54  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

such  action  because  the  municipal  gov'ernmcnt  had  be- 
come extravagant,  and  the  proposition  was  adopted  by  a 
large  majority.  More  recently  the  police  authorities 
decided  that  there  were  too  many  saloons  in  Dawson  and 
on  the  creeks  and  closed  thirty-five  of  them  in  one  day, 
an  incident  suggestive  of  the  arbitrary  manner  in  which 
authority  is  sometimes  exerciseci  by  this  organisation.  This 
might  not  do  on  the  American  side,  but  it  "  goes  "  in  the 
British  territories.  At  the  same  time  the  need  of  a  more 
efficient  police  service  in  Alaska  is  recognised  and  Judge 
Day,  who  investigated  conditions  in  the  district  in  the 
summer  of  1904,  is  understood  to  have  recommended  the 
organisation  of  a  mounted  constabulary  somewhat  after 
the  order  of  the  Northwest  Mounted  Police,  though  not 
clothed  with  such  arbitrary  power  as  that  organisation 
exercises  in  the  territories  of  the  Dominion. 

Dawson  has  two  daily  papers.  The  Yukon  florid  is 
the  Government  organ ;  the  News,  a  vigorous  and  pros- 
perous opposition  paper,  stands  for  the  enlargement  of  the 
element  of  home  rule  in  the  Territorial  Government.  It 
is  set  on  a  Mergenthaler  machine,  affords  a  photo-engrav- 
ing plant  which  produces  first-class  results,  and  serves  its 
readers  with  an  average  of  four  to  eight  pages  a  day  at  a 
cost  of  $24  a  year,  single  copies  25  cents.  This  Is  the 
ruling  price  of  all  newspapers  in  Alaska  and  the  Yukon, 
whether  daily  or  weekly.  The  same  charge  is  made  for 
newspapers  from  the  States,  and  magazines  which  can 
be  bought  in  Minneapolis  for  10  cents  cost  50  cents  on 
the  Yukon. 


A  "  CHEE-CHA-KO  "  IN  THE  KLONDIKE     55 

I  have  spoken  of  the  courteous  reception  accorded  the 
visiting  senators  by  the  officials  of  the  territory.  Our 
entire  party  was  favoured  with  an  invitation  to  a  formal 
dinner  at  the  executive  mansion,  where  Commissioner 
Congdon  served  to  sixteen  or  eighteen  gentlemen,  includ- 
ing territorial  and  municipal  officials,  as  well  as  the 
United  States  consul  and  the  visiting  senators  from  the 
States,  a  dinner  as  elegantly  appointed  as  I  have  ever  par- 
taken of  anywhere.  The  floral  decorations  were  particu- 
larly tasteful  and  varied.  Including  specimens  of  at  least 
a  dozen  varieties  of  flowers.  The  executlv^e  mansion  is  a 
handsome  frame  structure,  thoroughly  modern,  electric- 
lighted,  finished  throughout  in  British  Columbia  fir  in  Its 
native  tints  and  contains  the  private  office  of  the  governor, 
a  billiard-room,  a  reception-room,  spacious  parlours,  a 
state  dining-room,  large  chambers  and  a  grand  hall  and 
stairway. 

The  British  Yukon  enjoys  something  which  American 
Alaska  is  asking  for  and  is  destined  to  secure  In  time.  The 
British  Yukon  is  an  organised  territory,  having  a  gov- 
ernor, who  is  known  as  the  commissioner  of  Yukon  terri- 
tory, three  judges  and  an  executive  council  or  legislature 
consisting  of  five  members  elected  and  five  appointed  or  ex- 
officlo.  The  governor  Is  also  appointed  and  presides  over 
the  sessions  of  the  council,  giving  the  appointed  members 
a  majority  of  one.  When  the  territory  was  first  organised 
the  council  contained  but  two  elective  members.  Constant 
agitation,  however.  In  favour  of  home  rule  has  enlarged 
the  elective  membership  to  five  and  the  agitation,  still  con- 


56  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

tinning,  is  likely  to  increase  that  number.  The  Yukon  also 
has  a  delegate  in  Parliament,  another  boon  for  which 
Alaska  prays  without  di\ision  of  sentiment.  The  territory 
has  a  full  complement  of  officers,  including  a  gold  com- 
missioner, land  agent  and  a  superintendent  of  roads. 
Three  years'  residence  is  necessary  in  order  to  vote  and 
then  the  franchise  may  not  be  exercised  except  by  full 
citizens.  It  is  estimated  that  65  per  cent,  of  the  population 
are  Americans — that  is  to  say,  from  the  States.  No  taxes 
are  levied  on  property  outside  of  incorporated  towns,  but 
a  liberal  territorial  revenue  is  derived  from  the  export  tax 
on  gold  of  2  1-2  per  cent.  In  the  incorporated  towns  taxes 
for  municipal  purposes  are  levied  on  property  on  the 
valuation  basis. 

The  second  day  of  our  stay  In  Dawson  was  devoted 
to  the  mines.  As  the  guests  of  M.  L.  Washburn  of  the 
Northern  Commercial  company  and  T.  A.  McGowan, 
United  States  consul,  our  party  was  driven  in  road  wagons 
eighteen  miles  up  Bonanza  and  Eldorado  creeks  through 
the  heart  of  the  Klondike  mining  region.  The  British 
Yukon  has  the  best  system  of  wagon  roads  to  be  found 
in  any  mining  district  in  the  world.  These  roads  are  built 
by  the  Dominion  Government,  and  the  enterprise  dis- 
played in  construction  and  maintenance  is  an  object  lesson 
the  value  of  which  should  not  be  lost  on  our  Government. 

While  we  were  waiting  to  take  the  train  at  Skagway  an 
Indian  dressed  In  the  ordinary  garb  of  the  white  man,  but 
very  drunk  and  very  tearful,  addressed  himself  to  nearly 
every  one  on  the  platform,  expressing  his  grief  in  badly 


Ci-. 

-a 

c 


58  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

broken  English  over  the  death  of  his  mother.  It  appears 
that  his  mother  had  died  a  long  time  before,  but  he  was 
indulging  in  a  new  burst  of  grief,  along  with  some  other 
things  conducive  to  mellowness,  and  seeking  sympathy 
wherever  he  could  for  his  forlorn  condition.  This  weep- 
ing inebriate  was  "  Skookum  Jim,"  and  "  Skookum 
Jim  "  was  in  at  the  beginning  of  things  when  gold  was 
discovered  on  Bonanza  Creek  in  1896.  "Skookum,"  by 
the  way,  means  big. 

Of  course  there  are  rival  claimants  for  the  honour  of 
having  made  the  original  discovery  in  the   Klondike. 

Robert  Henderson  has  applied  to  the  Dominion  Gov- 
ernment for  recognition  as  the  original  discoverer,  basing 
his  title  on  the  representation  that  he  had  sluice  boxes  in 
operation  on  Hunker  Creek  in  July,  1896.  At  that  time 
it  was  known  as  All  Gold.  He  says  that  after  staking 
his  claims  he  returned  to  Ogilvie  for  supplies.  Securing 
an  outfit  he  started  down  the  Yukon  again  for  his  claim. 
At  the  mouth  of  the  Klondike  River  he  came  upon  George 
Carmack  and  his  Indian  associates,  "  Skookum  Jim  "  and 
"  Tagish  Charley."  He  advised  them  to  go  over  with 
him  to  All  Gold  and  Gold  Bottom  and  take  some 
claims.  They  did  so,  and  then  started  back  across  the 
divide  to  Bonanza  Creek,  then  known  as  Rabbit  Creek. 
As  they  left,  Henderson  requested  them,  if  they  found 
any  good-looking  prospects  on  Rabbit  Creek,  to  send  him 
word  and  he  would  pay  the  messenger  for  his  services. 
Henderson  says  that  on  that  return  trip  to  the  river 
Carmack  panned  on  the  rim  rock  of  Rabbit  Creek  with 


George  A.  Brackett  Washing  out  a  Pan 


6o  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

sensational  results,  and  was  so  excited  over  his  discovery 
that  he  forgot  to  send  back  the  messenger,  but  hastened 
on  to  Forty-Mile,  where  he  recorded  as  the  discoverer  of 
the  district.  When  Henderson  went  to  Forty-Mile  a  little 
later  he  was  notified  that  Carmack  had  already  filed  the 
first,  or  discovery,  claim.  Henderson  claims,  however,  that 
his  original  discovery  was  entitled  to  be  regarded  as  the 
discovery  claim  because  it  has  since  paid  a  royalty  on 
$450,000,  and  afterwards  was  sold  for  $200,000,  and  is 
still  a  valuable  property.  The  honour  of  discovery  is  not 
empty,  as  the  original  discoverer  is  allowed  to  stake  the 
next  claim  above  or  below  on  the  same  creek. 

George  Carmack's  story,  however,  which  is  more  popu- 
larly accepted  as  the  true  version  of  the  original  discov- 
ery, is  that  while  he  and  the  Indians  "  Skookum  Jim  "  and 
"  Tagish  Charley  "  were  fishing  for  salmon  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Klondike  they  decided,  the  catch  not  being  very 
satisfactory,  to  go  back  on  the  creeks  along  the  Klondike 
and  do  a  little  prospecting.  They  strolled  up  the  Klondike 
River,  panning  for  gold  here  and  there  but  with  indiffer- 
ent success,  until  noon  on  August  16.  When  they  stopped 
for  lunch  they  noticed  what  seemed  to  be  very  favour- 
able indications  on  the  exposed  rim  of  the  left  bank  of 
what  is  now  known  as  Bonanza  Creek.  A  pan  produced 
surprising  results.  In  a  little  while  they  had  washed  out 
over  $12.  The  following  day  they  staked  a  claim  cover- 
ing the  site  of  their  discovery  and  one  each  side  of  it. 
They  then  went  down  to  the  mouth  of  the  Klondike  River, 
and  on  the  present  site  of  Dawson  built  a  raft  on  which 


A  "  CHEE-CHA-KO  "  IN  THE  KLONDIKE     6i 

they  floated  down  the  Yukon  to  Forty-Mile,  where  there 
was  a  considerable  mining  camp  and  the  territorial  head- 
quarters. They  tiled  their  claims  and  told  what  they  had 
found.  Their  reputations  for  veracity  were  not  high,  but 
the  next  morning  nearly  every  man  who  had  heard  their 
story  at  Forty-Mile  was  on  his  way  to  the  Klondike. 

The  news  did  not  reach  the  outside  world  until  the 
next  summer,  1897,  but  it  spread  rapidly  up  and  down 
the  Yukon  and  the  stampede  was  soon  on.  Eight  years 
have  brought  into  the  country,  first  and  last,  50,000  to 
75,000  people,  developed  a  mining  district  800  square 
miles  in  extent,  and  established  a  trade  which  is  eagerly 
sought  for  by  the  coast  cities  on  both  sides  of  the  inter- 
national boundary. 

The  work  on  Bonanza  and  Eldorado  creeks,  where  the 
first  gold  strikes  were  made,  consists  now  largely  of  work- 
ing over  the  gravel  which  was  panned  and  sluiced  and 
rocked  in  the  first  handling,  bringing  out  only  the  coarse 
gold.  Dredging  machines,  hoisting  machines,  and  hy- 
draulic giants  make  it  possible  to  handle  so  much  larger 
quantities  in  the  same  time  and  at  so  much  less  expense 
to  the  yard  that  ground  which  it  was  once  thought  had 
been  worked  out  with  the  pan  and  rocker  is  now  produc- 
ing rich  returns  on  the  best  claims.  As  evidence  of  the 
fact  that  the  Klondike  gravels  are  still  believed  to  be 
valuable  when  handled  by  the  cheaper  and  more  reliable 
methods  of  extracting  the  gold,  a  group  of  sixty  claims, 
comprising  practically  all  of  (lolden  Hill,  at  the  junction 
of  I'lldorado  and  Bonanza  creeks,  was  sold  in  one  trans- 


62  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

action  to  one  company  for  $562,500,  in  September,  1904. 
This  grouiul  has  been  worked  over  more  or  less  by  the 
cruder  methods,  but  treated  by  the  hydraulic  system  is 
still  regarded  as  very  valuable. 

Bonanza  and  Eldorado  creeks  are  small  streams  and  the 
water  supply  is  entirely  inadequate.  Some  attempt  has 
been  made  toward  carrying  water  from  other  sources 
of  supply  through  pipes  and  sluice  boxes  to  where  it  is 
needed  for  washing  out  the  gravel,  and  improvements 
in  that  direction  would  greatly  increase  the  output. 

Stops  were  made  at  various  claims  along  the  way,  the 
noon  hour  finding  us  at  No.  26  above  on  Eldorado,  the 
property  of  Stanley  &  Worden.  Mr.  Stanley,  who  had 
been  a  fellow  traveller  on  the  way  from  Seattle  to  Skag- 
way,  was  the  discoverer  of  this  claim  and  with  his  part- 
ner owns  one  adjoining,  which  they  were  putting  through 
the  second  handling  w^th  a  steam  hoist,  with  extremely 
satisfactory  results.  There  w^as  no  clean-up  at  this  claim, 
but  Mr.  Brackett  washed  out  a  couple  of  pans  of  gravel 
from  the  bed  rock  and  secured  from  one  about  $1  and 
from  the  other  about  $1.50.  As  there  are  90  to  100 
pans  in  a  cubic  yard,  this  is  rich  dirt  and  afforded  some 
idea  of  w^hat  it  is  to  dig  for  gold  in  the  Klondike  w'hen 
you  have  "  struck  it  rich."  A  stretch  of  three  and  a 
half  miles  on  this  creek,  Eldorado,  is  said  to  have  pro- 
duced over  $30,000,000. 

At  another  claim  visited  shortly  afterward  a  pan, 
taken  at  random,  turned  out  $3.  The  operation  of  a  big 
dredger    furnished   an    illustration    of   placer    mining    by 


c 


X 


u 


64  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

machinery,  and  at  another  group  of  mines  we  were  in- 
vited to  witness  a  clean-up  on  property  owned  and  man- 
aged by  a  man  known  as  "  Skipper  "  Norwood,  at  one 
time  the  captain  of  a  sailing  vessel,  and  the  first  whaler 
to  voluntarily  winter  in  the  Arctic  Ocean.  When  one  of 
his  sluice  boxes,  which  had  been  running  about  two  days, 
was  cleaned  up  there  was  taken  from  it  a  small  pailful 
of  gold,  the  value  of  wliich  was  stated  by  the  experts  to 
be  about  $4,000.  7  his  was  well  up  the  side  of  the  ravine, 
on  what  is  called  a  hill  claim. 

In  the  Klondike  the  gold  is  comparatively  coarse;  that 
is,  it  is  in  the  form  of  grains  from  the  size  of  very  coarse 
cornmeal  to  grains  of  rice,  cracked  hominy,  peas  and  full 
grains  of  corn,  with  occasional  larger  pieces,  as  large  some- 
times as  twenty-dollar  gold  pieces.  This  gravel  may  either 
be  washed  out  by  the  use  of  a  pan  about  the  size  and  shape 
of  an  old-fashioned  milkpan,  or  in  what  are  known  as 
rockers  or  in  sluice  boxes.  Panning  consists  of  taking  a 
pan  half  full  of  gravel,  stooping  over  the  running  water  in 
the  stream,  wetting  the  gravel,  shaking  it  until  the  larger 
stones  come  to  the  surface,  throwing  them  off  by  hand  and 
gradually  working  down  the  gravel  until  only  fine  sand 
remains,  the  contents  being  repeatedly  dipped  in  the  water 
to  cause  the  earth  and  decomposed  rock  to  flow  off. 
Finally  the  contents  are  reduced  to  a  mere  handful  and  on 
one  side  of  the  pan.  This  is  carefully  washed  in  the  stream 
and  as  the  dirt  flows  out  the  gold  will  be  found  lying  on 
the  bottom  of  the  pan,  if  the  gravel  contained  any.  It  takes 
about  ten  or  twelve  minutes  to  wash  out  a  pan  of  grav^el 


A  "  CHEE-CHA-KO  "  IN  JHE  KLONDIKE  6s 

carefully,  so  that  ore  which  produces  50  cents  to  $1 
or  $1.50  a  pan  makes  pretty  good  wages.  On  the  very 
rich  strikes,  of  course,  it 
produces  more,  running 
as  high  sometimes  as 
$100  to  the  pan.  The 
rocker  is  a  different  con- 
trivance :  a  wooden  box  is 
made  to  rock  in  such  a 
way  as  to  slit  down  the 
gold,  which  is  always 
heavier  than  gravel,  while 
the  refuse  is  worked  off 
through  an  opening  near 
the  bottom.  A  sluice  box 
operated  by  two  men  is 
known  as  a  "  Long  Tom  "  ; 
it  is  eight  to  tweKe  feet 
in  length.  One  man  shov- 
els in  the  gra\'el  on  one 
side  and  the  other  one, 
with  a  dipper  on  a  loiig 
pole,  throws  in  the  water 
from  the  other  side.  The 
gravel  is  sluiced  out 
through     the     lower     end 

,      ,  II-  1  I  .>,..i.pcr"  Nor\vo(xl 

and  the  gold   is  gathered 

in   the  bottom,   either  on   rifHes,   or  on   a   blanket,   when 

it  is  in  the  form  of  fine  dust,  or  by  the  aid  of  quicksilver. 


66  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

Where  water  is  more  abundant  and  operations  are 
carried  on  on  a  larger  scale,  the  sluice  boxes  are  from  50 
to  150  feet  long,  a  rapid  current  of  water  is  turned  through 
them,  the  gravel  is  shovelled  into  the  sluice  box  by  several 
men  and  the  rapid  current  works  the  sand  and  the  pebbles 
and  loose  dirt  down  the  sluice  and  out  at  the  lower  end ;  the 
gold,  in  the  meantime,  collecting  on  what  are  known  as 
riffles  on  the  bottom  of  the  sluice  or  trough.  These  riffles 
are  generally  a  sort  of  lattice  work  made  to  fit  in  the  bot- 
tom of  the  sluice  box,  and  removable.  Iron  riffles  are 
also  used  in  the  form  of  sections  of  grating  fitted  into  the 
bottom  of  the  sluice  box  and  removed  when  the  clean-up  is 
made. 

To  the  inexperienced  observer  the  method  of  sluicing 
seems  like  a  very  wasteful  process,  and  as  if  quite  as  much 
gold  might  be  washed  out  by  the  rapid  flow  of  the  water 
as  collects  in  the  bottom  of  the  box.  But  experience  justi- 
fies the  process.  Gold  is  very  heavy  and  after  the  sluice 
boxes  are  cleared  and  the  riffles  removed,  a  strong  current 
may  be  allowed  to  pass  over  the  gold  in  the  bottom  and 
wash  it  clean  of  all  dirt  and  sand  without  carrying  any 
of  it  away.  This,  of  course,  is  where  the  gold  is  coarse,  as 
it  is  in  the  Klondike.  In  other  gold  fields,  where  the  gold 
is  in  the  form  of  fine  dust,  such  methods  cannot,  of  course, 
be  pursued.  There  the  gold  dust  must  be  gathered  by  the 
aid  of  quicksilver,  with  which  it  forms  an  amalgam,  and 
from  which  the  quicksilver  must  be  released  by  being 
subjected  to  heat. 

The  great  problem  of  the  Klondike  region  to-day  is  that 


A  "  CHEE-CHA-KO  "  IN  THE  KLONDIKE    67 

of  water,  and  if  the  Government  of  the  Yukon  could  do 
as  much  for  the  miners  in  that  region  in  the  way  of  supply- 
ing water  as  it  has  done  in  building  wagon  roads,  it  would 
settle  the  question  of  profitable  mining  on  many  claims 
which  are  not  now  of  much  value.  An  attempt  was  made 
to  provide  water  by  granting  what  is  known  as  the  Tread- 
gold  concession.  This  was  a  practical  monopoly  of  cer- 
tain water  sources  given  on  the  understanding  that  the 
supply  would  be  developed  and  water  sold  to  the  miners 
at  fair  prices.  Practically  nothing  was  done  under  that 
concession  and  it  has  been  cancelled  by  the  Dominion 
Government. 


IV 
CROSSING  THE  ARCTIC  CIRCLE 

IF  you  are  ordinarily  business-like  and  careful  in  your 
financial  transactions,  you  at  least  glance  at  the  change 
when  it  is  handed  back  to  you,  just  to  see  that  there 
is  no  mistake.  I  saw  a  man  make  a  purchase  in  a  Dawson 
store,  pull  a  leather  poke  out  of  his  pocket  and  hand  it 
to  the  clerk.  He  then  turned  around  and  engaged  in  con- 
versation with  another  man.  Presently  his  poke  was 
handed  back  to  him,  together  with  a  number  of  articles 
he  had  purchased,  and  he  left  the  store.  He  had  paid 
for  his  purchases  in  gold  dust,  the  amount  had  been 
weighed  out  by  the  clerk  without  any  attention  being 
paid  to  the  operation  by  the  purchaser,  and  when  he 
departed  he  had  no  means  of  knowing,  unless  he  had 
weighed  his  gold  before  he  entered  the  store,  whether  the 
right  amount  had  been  taken  out.  I  had  heard  before  of 
the  practice  of  receiving  back  the  change  without  counting 
it  and  I  asked  the  storekeeper  if  all  his  customers  had  as 
much  faith  in  his  honesty  as  this  one  appeared  to  have; 
whether  they  w^ere  all  in  the  habit  of  handing  over  their 
dust  pokes  for  him  to  take  what  he  wanted. 

"  He  knows  well  enough,"  said  the  merchant,  "  that  I 
could  not  afford  to  cheat  him.  We  trust  one  another  in 
this  country — more,  probably,  than  you  do  in  the  States. 

68 


CROSSING  THE  ARCTIC  CIRCLE  69 

In  the  early  days  we  had  to,  and  woe  to  the  man  who 
betrayed  a  trust.  There  is  nothing  so  utterly  unpardonable 
in  a  mining  camp  as  a  deal  that  isn't  square,  and  in 
the  early  days  a  man  who  was  not  square  did  not  last 
long. 

The  use  of  gold  dust  in  the  ordinary  transactions  of 
trade  has  pretty  nearly  gone  out  of  vogue  now,  however, 
not  only  in  Dawson,  but  in  the  surrounding  mining  camps. 
Gold  dust  is  used  more  on  the  Alaska  side  than  in  the 
Yukon,  because  the  conveniences  of  converting  it  into 
money  are  greater  on  the  Canadian  side  than  on  the 
American.  The  commercial  companies  and  some  local  mer- 
chants who  act  as  brokers,  but  chiefly  the  commercial 
companies  and  the  banksj  buy  the  gold  dust,  and  export 
it,  paying  the  2  1-2  per  cent,  royalty  or  export  duty  to 
the  Government. 

Next  to  a  clean-up,  where  the  virgin  gold  is  taken  out 
in  the  sluice  boxes,  the  most  interesting  operation  in  which 
this  precious  metal  figures  is  the  smelting  of  the  dust  and 
nuggets  into  bars  for  export.  Our  company  was  invited 
to  witness  this  interesting  operation  in  the  British  Bank  of 
North  America.  The  gold  is  reduced  in  a  furnace  to  li(]uid 
form  ami  turned  out  into  a  mouUl,  making  a  brick  about 
the  size  of  those  ordinarily  used  for  paxing.  Such  a  brick 
weighs  about  1,000  troy  ounces,  or  approximately  83 
pounds  troy  weight.  The  Klondike  gold  runs  from  $15.50 
to  $17  an  ounce,  making  the  gold  brick  weighing  1,000 
ounces  worth  from  $15,000  to  $17,000,  varying  accord- 
ing to  the  number  of  ounces  it  contains  antl  the  fineness 


70  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

of  the  gold.  The  actual  \alue  is  detcnniiiccl  by  chipping 
oft  a  httle  piece  and  assaying  it.  The  brick  is  then  stamped 
as  to  its  weight  and  fineness,  and  is  sent  to  the  mint. 
Nearly  all  of  the  gold  sent  out  of  the  Klondike  region  goes 
to  the  mint  at  Seattle.  There  is  a  Government  mint  at 
Vancouver,  but  as  the  ships  of  the  regular  lines  from 
Skagway  run  to  Seattle,  the  gold  is  nearly  all  shipped 
there,  so  that  eventually  the  gold  output  of  the  Klondike 
finds  its  market  in  the  United  States. 

Staking  a  claim  in  the  Klondike  is  a  much  more  exact 
proposition  than  on  the  Alaskan  side  under  the  American 
laws.  In  placer  mining,  which  is  about  the  only  kind  of 
mining  carried  on  in  the  Klondike  as  yet,  a  creek  claim 
means  an  area  250  feet  up  and  down  the  creek  and  2,000 
feet  in  width.  This  seems  to  be  a  case  where  the  thing 
described  is  broader  than  it  is  long.  The  mining  laws  have 
been  amended  at  various  times  so  as  to  change  the  area  of  a 
claim  materially.  Prior  to  April  i,  1898,  and  when  the 
first  claims  were  staked  in  that  region,  the  claim  ran  from 
the  base  of  the  hill  on  one  side  of  the  creek  to  the  base  of 
the  hill  on  the  other  side  for  a  distance  of  500  feet  up 
and  down  the  creek.  This  w\as  changed  April  i,  1898,  to 
250  feet  lengthwise  of  the  creek  and  running  from  rimrock 
to  rimrock  on  either  side.  Two  years  later  the  form  of  a 
claim  was  changed  again,  allowing  the  claimant  to  meas- 
ure 250  feet  along  the  creek  and  1,000  feet  back  on  each 
side.  In  1901  the  present  method  was  inaugurated,  which 
provides  for  a  claim  as  already  described,  2,000  feet  by 
250  feet;  but  it  was  found  that  in  laying  out  claims  per- 


CROSSING  THE  ARCTIC  CIRCLE  71 

pendicular  to  the  creek  difficulties  were  encountered  from 
overlapping  by  reason  of  the  sinuosity  of  the  creek.  It 
was  therefore  provided  that  when  gold  had  been  discov- 
ered on  a  creek  the  Government  should  survey  what  is 
called  a  base  line;  that  is  to  say,  a  straight  line,  changing 
its  direction  at  exact  angles  to  correspond  with  the  general 
direction  of  the  creek.  This  provides  for  more  accurate 
definition  of  claim  boundaries  by  establishing  a  base  line 
from  which  they  may  be  measured. 

A  hill  claim,  that  is  one  lying  up  above  the  creek  claim, 
is  only  1,000  feet  in  width;  that  is  to  say,  it  has  the 
same  frontage  lengthwise  of  the  creek  as  the  creek  claim 
— 250  feet,  but  extends  back  in  one  direction  only  1,000 
feet. 

When  a  prospector  undertakes  to  stake  a  claim  he 
must  set  two  posts,  one  at  the  upper  end  on  the  creek  and 
the  other  at  the  lower  end  on  the  creek,  on  which  he 
must  post  the  name  of  the  claim,  a  description  of  it,  in- 
cluding mention  of  natural  monuments  such  as  trees,  or 
rocks,  or  anything  else  by  which  it  can  be  identified;  he 
must  state  the  date  of  the  location  and  give  his  own  full 
name.  Within  ten  days  he  must  file  his  claim  at  the  min- 
ing recorder's  office,  but  before  any  prospector  can  file 
a  claim  to  mining  property  he  must  take  out  a  free  miner's 
license,  good  for  one  year,  at  a  cost  of  $7.50. 

In  the  British  Yukon  no  miner  can  stake  more  tlian  one 
mining  claim  on  one  river,  creek  or  gulch,  although  he 
may  hold  any  number  of  claims  bv  jnirchasc,  but  he  may 
stake  claims  on  other  creeks   or  gulches  in  the  same  district 


72  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

or  on  what  is  called  a  pup.  A  pup  is  a  small  creek  or  gulch 
leading  into  a  larger  one. 

Every  claim-holder  is  required  to  do  what  is  called  de- 
velopment work  on  his  claim  to  the  value  of  at  least  $200 
each  year,  or  in  lieu  of  the  work  he  may  pay  $200  a  year 
to  the  mining  recorder  for  three  years,  after  which  he  must 
pay  $400  each  year.  He  must  also  have  a  certificate  an- 
nually that  his  $200  worth  of  work  has  been  done  or  his 
$200  paid,  or  the  claim  will  be  cancelled  in  the  gold  com- 
missioner's office. 

The  regulations  for  quartz  claims  and  for  copper  loca- 
tions vary  somewhat  from  those  applying  to  gold  placer 
claims.  For  instance,  a  quartz  claim  may  be  1,500  by 
1,500  feet.  The  annual  development  work  required  is 
limited  to  $100  and  after  five  years  the  claimant  may  pur- 
chase the  land  at  $1  an  acre.  Placer  claims  are  really  only 
leased,  the  claimant  having  no  title  to  the  land  and  being 
granted  possession  only  so  long  as  he  complies  with  the 
above  regulations.  Copper  locations  may  be  160  acres  in 
a  square  block,  but  only  one  location  may  be  taken  within 
an  area  of  ten  miles  square,  nor  is  the  claimant  to  a  copper 
location  permitted  to  mine  any  other  metals  not  mixed  with 
copper,  and  in  no  case  may  he  mine  free-milling  gold  or 
silver  on  a  copper  permit. 

These  restrictions  guard  against  one  man  or  a  few 
monopolising  the  whole  of  a  rich  mining  district.  The 
Dominion  laws  are  also  liberal  to  aliens  in  that  citizen- 
ship or  first  steps  to  naturalisation  are  not  necessary  in 
order  to  take  up  a  claim.   On  the  Alaska  side  only  citizens 


t 


-Tt 


•f  I  i 


74  ALASKA  AND  THE  RLONDlKli 

or  those  who  ha\c  declared  an  intention  to  become  citizens 
may  locate  mining  claims. 

Very  complete  records  are  kept  in  the  gold  commis- 
sioner's office  in  Dawson.  It  is  possible  by  these  records  to 
determine  at  any  time  the  status  of  any  claim,  just  as  it  is 
possible  to  determine  by  the  examination  of  the  records 
whether  any  mortgages  have  been  recorded  against  a  piece 
of  land  in  the  state  of  Minnesota.  The  contrast  between 
the  business-like  methods  and  the  clear  and  definite  in- 
formation obtainable  at  any  time  in  the  gold  commis- 
sioner's office  in  Dawson  with  respect  to  any  piece  of 
mining  property  in  Yukon  territory  and  the  miserable 
tangle  into  which  titles  to  mining  property  have  been 
brought  in  Alaska,  in  the  Nome  district  for  example,  is 
no  credit  to  our  American  statesmanship;  but  that  will 
be  changed.  That  the  business  of  bookkeeping  with  regard 
to  the  mining  business  of  the  Klondike  country  is  con- 
siderable may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  during  the 
year  1902,  10,490  free  miners'  certificates  were  issued, 
showing  that  that  many  people  were  holding  claims. 

The  output  of  the  Klondike  region  for  1904  is  officially 
stated  at  $10,300,000,  a  smaller  production  than  usual  on 
account  of  the  lack  of  water.  The  mining  season  was 
dry  and  the  snowfall  of  the  previous  winter  comparatively 
light.  But  even  with  a  better  water  supply  the  annual 
crop  of  gold  is  smaller  by  several  millions  now  than 
in  1898  and  1899.  The  total  output  of  the  district 
since  the  discovery  in  1896  is  roughly  estimated  at 
$120,000,000. 


w 


oi 


76  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

When  the  senatorial  party  lett  home  it  was  arranged 
that  it  should  make  the  trip  from  Dawson  down  the  Yukon 
on  one  of  the  ime  boats  of  the  Northern  Commercial  com- 
pany. This  boat,  the  Sarah,  was  expected  to  arrive  about 
the  loth  or  12th  of  July  and  depart  within  twenty-four 
hours  on  the  downward  trip,  thus  giving  the  committee 
three  or  four  days  in  Dawson.  The  Sarah  did  not  arrive 
on  schedule  time,  and  was  eagerly  looked  for  for  several 
days.  There  is  a  telegraph  line  from  Dawson  to  Eagle, 
1 10  miles  down  the  river,  and  notice  by  wire  of  the  arrival 
of  the  Sarah  at  Eagle  was  hourly  expected.  The  12th 
arrived,  and  the  13th,  and  the  14th,  and  still  no  word  from 
Sarah.  It  was  believed,  however,  that  this  boat  would  cer- 
tainly make  her  appearance  within  a  day  or  two,  when, 
on  the  morning  of  the  14th,  we  boarded  a  local  boat  for 
Eagle,  the  first  town  on  the  Yukon  across  the  American 
border.  The  plan  was  to  go  down  to  Eagle,  where,  also, 
is  located  Fort  Egbert,  with  the  expectation  of  continuing 
the  investigations  with  regard  to  Alaskan  matters  at  that 
point  for  a  day  or  two  until  the  Sarah  should  arrive  at 
Dawson  and  return,  taking  us  on  board  on  her  downward 
trip. 

The  Yukon  from  Dawson  northwestward  to  Eagle, 
flows  through  a  succession  of  hills,  slightly  wooded.  The 
only  point  of  interest  is  a  trading  station  occupied  by  both 
the  great  trading  companies,  called  Forty-Mile.  This  post 
is  at  the  mouth  of  the  Forty-Mile  River,  on  the  tributaries 
of  which  is  located  the  celebrated  Forty-Mile  mining  dis- 
trict, a  district  which  had  turned  out  a  great  deal  of  gold 


The  Senator  from  Minnesota  Ready  fur  the  Trail  at  Eagle 


78  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

before  the  Klondike  was  discovered,  and  from  which  oc- 
curred the  first  stampede  to  the  Klondike  region. 

Eagle,  lying  within  five  miles  of  the  international 
boundary  on  the  American  side,  is  a  town  with  a  future. 
With  a  population  of  about  250  it  is  of  interest  because  of 
the  location  there  of  the  most  northern  customs  house 
belonging  to  the  L-nited  States  and  the  most  northern 
military  post.  The  garrison  consists  of  one  company  of 
regulars,  quartered  in  comfortable  log  houses  and  bar- 
racks, and  then  under  the  command  of  Captain  Perkins, 
who  had  a  company  of  the  Eighth  Regiment.  Here  is 
found  one  of  the  best  demonstrations  of  the  agricultural 
possibilities  of  Alaska,  and  the  garden  nearest  to  the  Pole 
where  important  results  have  been  secured.  The  gardens 
of  the  post  produce  large  quantities  of  potatoes,  cabbage, 
cauliflower,  lettuce,  turnips  and  radishes.  So  far  as  these 
products  are  concerned,  the  ability  to  produce  them  suc- 
cessfully on  the  65th  degree  of  north  latitude  has  been 
demonstrated.  Other  vegetables,  peas,  beans,  etc.,  are  also 
grown  to  some  extent. 

Life  in  an  army  post  almost  under  the  Arctic  Circle,  as 
can  readily  be  imagined,  has  its  drawbacks,  and,  indeed, 
all  Alaskan  military  service  Is  counted  In  the  war  depart- 
ment as  foreign  service  and  calls  for  10  per  cent,  extra 
pay. 

The  mails  crossing  Alaska  from  Dawson  to  Nome, 
which  Is  the  postal  route  by  which  Fort  Egbert  is  supplied 
in  winter,  are  carried  at  that  season  of  the  year  on  dog 
sleds  and  may  not  exceed  400  pounds  on  leaving  Dawson. 


h 

o 

< 


8o  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

riiis  means  that  no  newspaper  mail  and  magazines  can 
be  obtained  after  the  river  closes  in  October  until  it 
opens  in  June;  no  mail  can  be  carried  except  tirst-class  mail, 
paying  letter  postage.  Friends  outside  sometimes  send 
clippings  from  newspapers  to  their  friends  "  on  the  in- 
side "  under  letter  postage,  but  such  packages  must  not 
be  large  enough  to  excite  the  suspicion  of  the  mail-carrier 
or  they  will  probably  be  left  behind  till  spring,  as  the  regu- 
lar letter  mail  for  Nome,  awaiting  transportation  at  Daw- 
son, often  exceeds  400  pounds.  The  excess  must  always 
wait  until  the  next  time,  even  if  it  should  be  a  letter  from 
home  to  some  weary,  homesick  soul;  and  the  next  time  is 
the  next  month,  as  the  mail  crosses  Alaska  to  Nome  not 
oftener  than  once  a  month. 

Eagle,  however,  is  not  without  its  social  life.  It  has  two 
churches  and  these  societies  indulge  in  church  socials,  in 
musicales  and  resort  to  such  other  devices  of  cultivating 
the  social  nature  and  filling  the  contribution  box  as  are 
common  in  other  communities. 

The  feminine  population  of  the  village  affords  at  least 
one  fine  example  of  enterprise  and  pluck.  The  hotel  which 
sheltered  our  party  was  conducted  by  a  young  lady  who  had 
been  a  school-teacher  in  the  state  of  Washington,  but  has 
found  Alaska  a  more  profitable  field  for  the  exercise  of 
her  energy  and  talents.  She  was  in  Sheep  Camp  down  on 
Chllcoot  Pass  near  Dyea,  with  two  of  her  brothers,  in  the 
winter  of  '98  and  '99,  when  the  great  snowslide  occurred 
which  buried  eighty-nine  men  who  were  struggling  up  the 
mountainside.   Her  brothers  helped  to  shovel  out  the  vie- 


CROSSING  THE  ARCTIC  CIRCLE  8i 

tims.  A  little  later  she  crossed  over  the  same  trail,  helped 
her  brothers  build  a  boat  on  Lake  Linderman  and  floated 
with  them  down  the  Yukon  to  Dawson  in  the  spring  of 
'99.  She  w'as  accompanied  by  a  girl  friend  of  the  same 
indomitable  spirit.  This  trip,  she  says,  was  a  picinc.  With 
all  their  possessions  aboard  and  themselves  comfortably 
housed  under  a  tent  erected  on  a  flatboat,  they  had  a  jolly 
time  floating  with  the  current  from  the  slopes  of  the 
coast  range  to  the  mouth  of  the  Klondike.  Stopping  only 
two  days  in  Dawson,  she  arrived  in  Eagle  on  the  ist  of 
July,  1899,  ^^'^  while  her  brothers  went  on  down  the 
river  with  some  freight  which  they  were  carrying  for  other 
people,  she  opened  a  restaurant  in  a  tent  and  made  it  pay. 
She  soon  had  a  chance  to  go  into  the  hotel  business,  has 
been  appointed  postmistress,  and  finds  her  employment  so 
profitable,  and  is  so  well  content  in  her  northern  home,  that 
the  schoolroom  In  the  States  which  she  abandoned  for 
Alaska  has  no  attractions  for  her  now. 

Cheery,  energetic  and  independent,  it  never  occurs  to 
her  that  her  lot  is  a  hard  one  in  any  particular.  She  is 
prosperous  and  useful,  respected  and  happy,  which  goes  to 
show  that  these  things  do  not  depend  wholly  on  environ- 
ment. She  has  been  "  outside  "  only  once  since  she  came 
to  Alaska,  and  then  in  obedience  to  filial  duty.  Her  par- 
ents live  on  a  little  farm  near  Seattle  which  her  vMaska 
savings  bought  for  them.  I  Icr  i)ian()  ami  her  small  but 
well-selected  library  suggest  what  is  confirmed  by  a  few 
minutes'  conversation,  that  the  little  postmistress  of  Eagle 
Is  a  woman  of  culture  and  a  womanly  woman,  with  all 


82  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

her  commercial  ambitions  and  abilities.  And  so  you  find 
that  here  in  the  heart  of  the  northern  snowfields  the  women 
of  Alaska  rise  superior  to  their  seemingly  overwhelming 
surroundings,  and  though  imprisoned  beyond  the  possi- 
bility of  escape  from  October  to  June  they  bear  their  share 
of  the  burden  of  isolation  with  most  admirable  courage 
and  cheerfulness. 

Among  our  fellow  passengers  on  the  boat  from  Dawson 
to  Eagle  was  Captain  D.  H.  Jarvis,  United  States  in- 
spector of  customs,  who  was  on  an  official  tour.  Mr.  Jar- 
vis  is  Alaska's  hero.  When  the  history  of  that  country  is 
written,  no  page,  from  the  beginning  until  now,  will  glow 
with  a  brighter  example  of  bravery,  self-sacrifice  and  de- 
votion to  duty  than  that  which  recites  the  story  of  the 
relief  expedition  to  Point  Barrow  in  the  winter  of  1897 
and  '98.  Only  brief  reference  can  be  made  to  it  here,  and 
if  the  details  were  obtainable  only  from  the  lips  of  Mr. 
Jarvis,  the  narrative  would  be  meagre  enough  in  that 
embellishment  which  the  recital  of  thrilling  personal  ad- 
venture contributes;  for  Mr.  Jarvis  is  of  the  kind  of  whom 
heroes  are  usually  made.  Modest,  quiet,  never  directing 
attention  to  himself  and  reluctant  to  converse  on  the  sub- 
ject of  his  own  exploits,  it  would  be  difficult,  indeed,  to 
gain  from  him  in  conversation  any  adequate  conception 
of  the  brave  work  which  he  did. 

In  the  fall  of  '97  eight  whaling  ships  were  caught  in 
the  ice  off  the  northern  shore  of  Alaska  in  the  Arctic 
Ocean.  Some  of  them  were  badly  broken  up  by  the 
ice,  but  the  men  managed  to  reach   Point   Barrow,   the 


Lt.  Bertholf 


Dr.  Call 


Captain  Jarvis 


84  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

most  northern  settlement  under  the  American  flag.  They 
were  without  suppHes  sufficient  to  carry  them  through 
the  winter,  and  it  was  feared  that  they  would  all  perish 
of  cold  and  hunger.  News  of  their  desperate  plight 
reached  the  States  about  the  ist  of  December.  The  Gov- 
ernment at  Washington  saw  the  necessity  of  sending  relief, 
but  how  to  get  it  to  them  was  the  apparently  unsolvable 
problem,  and  who  should  lead  the  expedition  was  a  no 
less  difficult  question.  Captain  Jarvis,  then  a  lieutenant  of 
the  United  States  revenue-cutter  service,  was  in  the  States 
on  leave  and  at  the  bedside  of  his  sick  wife  in  Massa- 
chusetts. Her  condition  was  serious.  The  Government 
asked  him  if  he  would  go.  He  looked  at  his  sick  wife  and 
said  no.  The  chances  were  so  desperate  that  the  relief 
expedition  itself  could  not  reach  Point  Barrow  that  the 
Government  did  not  like  to  order  any  one  to  make  the 
attempt,  but  began  to  look  for  volunteers.  Seeing  the  atti- 
tude of  the  Government,  and  impressed  with  the  belief 
that  it  was  his  duty,  as,  perhaps,  the  one  best  qualified  by 
experience  and  knowledge  of  the  country  to  lead  this 
expedition,  Mr.  Jarvis  tendered  his  services,  bade  good- 
bye to  his  family  and  raced  with  all  speed  across  the 
continent  to  Seattle,  where  the  revenue  cutter  Bear  had 
been  ordered  by  telegraph  to  be  ready  and  provisioned  for 
the  expedition. 

Captain  Jarvis  had  already  submitted  to  the  Govern- 
ment a  plan  by  which  the  relief  needed  could  reach  the 
imprisoned  sailors.  He  proposed  to  go  as  far  north  in 
the  Bear  as  it  was  possible,   then  take   to  the   ice  with 


CROSSING  THE  ARCTIC  CIRCLE  85 

dogs  and  go  to  the  nearest  reindeer  stations  on  the  Seward 
Peninsula.  Domestic  reindeer  had  been  imported  from 
Siberia  several  years  before  and  several  reindeer  stations 
or  ranches  had  already  been  established.  From  these  sta- 
tions he  planned  to  take  reindeer  across  the  country  to 
Point  Barrow. 

The  Bear  passed  through  the  Aleutian  chain  at  Dutch 
Harbour,  turned  northeast  and  sought  the  most  northerly 
limit  of  the  open  water  on  the  west  coast  of  Alaska.  I  his 
point  was  reached  at  the  village  of  Tununak,  near  Cape 
\'ancou\'er,  on  Nelson  Island,  where  Captain  Jarvis  dis- 
embarked at  an  Indian  village,  accompanied  by  Dr.  S.  J. 
Call  and  Lieutenant  E.  P.  Bertholf.  They  proceeded  north 
by  the  aid  of  Indians  with  dog  teams  to  St.  Michael  and 
thence  to  the  reindeer  station  on  Golofnin  Bay.  Here  and 
at  other  reindeer  stations  in  that  part  of  Alaska  a  herd 
of  400  reindeer  under  the  care  of  W.  T,  Lopp,  superin- 
tendent ol  the  Icllcr  reindeer  station,  was  collected  and 
sent  forward  500  miles  further  to  Point  Barrow. 

rhe  imprisoned  whalers  had  practically  given  up,  and, 
while  not  yet  out  of  food,  were  doing  nothing  to  preserve 
their  own  health.  Mr.  Jarxis,  supported  by  his  tlirce 
assistants,  asserted  the  authority  of  the  Government  and 
took  charge  of  all  the  supplies  on  hand,  measured  out  the 
rations,  provided  fresh  reindeer  meat,  compelled  the  men 
to  take  daily  exercise,  and,  in  short,  brought  thcin  through 
to  the  breaking  up  of  the  ice  in  July,  undoubtedly  saving 
the  lives  of  hundreds  who  were  fast  yielding  to  dcsjiair  and 
disease. 


86  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

I  he  story  of  this  remarkable  expedition  into  the  very 
heart  of  the  arctic  region  in  the  dead  of  winter,  has  been 
told  by  Mr.  Jarvis  in  an  official  report  with  a  degree  of 
modesty  which  is  eloquent  of  the  courage  and  resolution 
and  tact  required  not  only  to  face  the  terrors  of  the  jour- 
ney across  the  snowfields  of  the  north,  but  to  assert  and 
maintain  complete  mastery  over  the  crazed  and  mutinous 
and  desperate  men  who  constituted  the  crews  of  the  im- 
prisoned whalers.  Indeed,  it  was  not  facing  blizzards  on 
the  bleak  shores  of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  the  long  stretches 
of  weary  tramping  over  the  ice  and  snow,  with  not  a  human 
habitation  for  hundreds  of  miles,  not  even  an  Indian  igloo 
in  which  to  find  shelter — it  was  not  the  toil  and  suffering 
of  that  weary  struggle  for  i,8oo  miles  in  midwinter  that 
required  nerve  and  courage  so  much  as  the  assertion  and 
maintenance  of  absolute  authority  in  the  beleaguered  camp 
after  the  relief  expedition  reached  there.  Yet  the  small, 
spare,  low-voiced,  slow-speaking,  modest  but  resolute  man, 
to  whom  the  people  of  Alaska  all  take  off  their  hats  when 
they  address  Captain  D.  H.  Jarvis,  is  the  man  whom 
the  Government  selected  for  that  desperate  errand,  and 
made  no  mistake  in  the  choice. 

Relief  came  on  the  26th  of  July  when  the  ice  pack  in 
the  Arctic  Ocean  broke  up  as  far  north  as  Point  Barrow. 
It  was  then  that  Captain  Jarvis  learned  that  there  had  been 
a  war  with  Spain;  that  it  was  all  over,  and  that  he  had  no 
chance  to  get  in.  This  is  the  only  thing  in  connection  with 
the  expedition  about  which  he  has  ever  been  known  to 
express   any  regret.  The   splendid  heroism   displayed  by 


CROSSING  THE  ARCTIC  CIRCLE 


^7 


Captain  Jarvis,  as  the  leader  of  the  Point  Barrow  expedi- 
tion, was  tardily  recognised  by  Congress  last  year,  when 
he  was  awarded  a  gold  medal. 

There  was  another  Alaska  hero  on  board  the  Bailey  go- 
ing down  from  Dawson  to  Eagle.   There  is  no  man  in  Daw- 


Ben  Downing 

son  who  has  more  friends  and  who  is  really  regarded  with 
more  good  will  by  the  people  of  that  city  than  Ben  Down- 
ing, the  veteran  mail-carrier  of  the  Yukon.  Ben  Down- 
ing was  carrying  the  royal  mail  from  Dawson  to  I^agle. 
His  engagement  by  the  Dominion  (jovernment  in  this 
service  is  a  commentary  on  the  ingratitude  of  the  Repub- 
lic, and  indicates  a  higher  appreciation  of  faithlul  publig 


88  ALASKA  AM)    IIIi:  KLONDIKE 

scr\icc  on  the  part  ol  t)ur  neighbours  of  tlic  British  Empire. 
Four  or  tivc  years  ago,  Downing,  who  was  once  a  Maine 
Yankee,  left  oft  "  broncho-busting  "  and  "  cow-punching  " 
in  Arizona  and  joined  the  stampede  to  the  north.  He  did 
not  strike  anything  very  rich  at  the  beginning,  and  soon 
found  himself  engaged  as  (jovernment  mail-carrier  on  the 
long  route  between  Dawson  and  Nome.  It  was  his  busi- 
ness to  make  the  run  from  Dawson  down  the  Yukon  to 
the  Tanana,  a  distance  of  nearly  900  miles.  The  travers- 
ing of  this  long  and  weary  route  alone  in  the  dead  of  an 
Arctic  winter  was  the  agreeable  task  assigned  to  Mr. 
Downing,  but  he  enjoyed  it.  He  had  his  dogs  and  his 
sled,  and  he  could  "  mush  "*  40  miles  a  day  or  more 
after  his  fleet-footed  and  tireless  "  huskies  "  and  "  mala- 
mutes."  The  route  was  laid  with  roadhouses  at  the  end 
of  each  day's  journey,  in  w'hich  Downing  and  his  dogs 
housed  themselves  at  night.  It  was  on  one  of  these  long 
runs,  when  nearing  Dawson  on  his  eastward  trip,  that  he 
ran  into  a  hole  in  the  ice  in  the  Y  ukon  River.  The  side 
bars  of  a  dog  sled  terminate  usually  in  two  curved  handles, 
much  like  the  handles  of  a  plow,  to  which  the  driver  may 
hold  as  he  runs  behind  his  team.  The  dogs  saw  the  danger 
in  time  to  sheer  off,  but  the  sled  toppled  partly  into  the 
water,  into  which  Downing  fell.  His  dogs,  seeing  him  in 
distress,  were  inclined  to  turn  and  come  to  him,  but  being 

*  In  Alaska  and  the  Klondike  to  "  mush  "  is  to  walk,  or  to  run  slowly.  The  miner  who 
tramps  over  the  country  prospecting  "  mushes  ";  the  mail-carrier  who  walks  "  mushes." 
Whether  the  word  has  an  Indian  origin  I  do  not  know,  but  such  origin  is  not  necessary 
to  explain  its  use  when  every  step  on  the  soft,  wet,  spongy  mat  of  moss  and  roots  and  grass 
that  covers  the  ground  over  such  a  large  portion  of  the  country  suggests  the  word. 


CROSSING  THE  ARCTIC  CIRCLE  89 

vigorously  urged  on  they  pulled  the  sled  and  their  master 
so  that  by  their  help  he  was  able  to  raise  himself  out  of  the 
water,  from  which  he  emerged  without  cap  or  mittens, 
drenched  from  head  to  foot.  He  was  several  miles  from  a 
roadhouse  where  he  could  find  warmth  and  shelter,  and  a 
less  resolute  man  would  ha\e  frozen  stiff  in  a  few  minutes. 
He  urged  his  dogs  with  all  his  might  and  ran  at  the  top  of 
his  speed,  knowing  that  his  life  depended  upon  his  utmost 
exertions.  It  was  one  of  those  beautiful  clear  Arctic  nights 
when  the  mercury  crawls  down  in  the  bulb  and  lies  there, 
a  little  solid  bullet.  The  temperature  was  probably  about 
60  degrees  below.  His  clothes  froze  so  stiff  as  to  impede 
his  running,  but  still  he  struggled  on.  Finally  reaching  the 
roadhouse,  he  dashed  within,  and  called  for  help.  His 
clothing  was  cut  from  him  as  rapidly  as  possible.  His  face 
and  nose  and  ears  were  badly  frozen,  and  his  feet  were 
almost  solid.  In  a  short  time  he  was  dressed  in  dry  and 
warm  clothing  and,  with  his  blistered  and  swollen  feet  pre- 
pared as  best  he  could  for  the  journey,  he  refused  the 
urgent  aj^peal  of  the  keeper  of  the  roadhouse  to  remain, 
but  insisted  on  pressing  on  to  Dawson,  that  he  might  de- 
liver the  mail  on  time.  The  mail  was  delivered  on  time, 
but  this  last  stage  of  his  journey,  it  is  needless  to  say,  was 
accomplished  only  with  intense  suffering  and  by  the  exer- 
cise of  a  powerful  will.  They  say  in  Dawson  that,  as  he 
hobbled  into  the  post-office  there,  his  footsteps  were 
marked  with  blood. 

His  mail  delivered,  he  was  taken  at  once  to  a  hospital 
and  the  doctors  decided  that  his  feet  were  so  badlv  frozen 


90  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

it  would  he  necessary  to  amputate  them.  Downing  heard 
this  conclusion  announced  and  quietly  asked  that  some  one 
hand  him  his  re\olver.  They  hesitated  lest  he  might  he 
contemplating  suicide,  but  when  he  assured  them  that  he 
had  no  such  intention,  they  gave  it  to  him.  He  put  it 
under  his  pillow,  and  lay  down.  "  Now,"  said  he,  "  go 
ahead  and  fix  up  them  feet  the  best  you  can,  but  let  me 
tell  you  that  if  I  wake  up  and  find  you  fellows  have  cut 
them  oft  I  am  going  to  shoot  the  man  that  did  it.  Them 
feet  and  me  are  goin'  together;  if  I  live  I  have  use  for 
them;  if  I  can't  have  them  I  don't  want  to  live.  Now,  go 
ahead."  The  result  was  that  the  ends  of  several  of  his 
toes  were  trimmed  off  and  the  old  mail-carrier  is  not  quite 
as  agile  as  he  used  to  be,  but  he  walks  comfortably  on  two 
feet,  a  really  splendid  fellow  and  a  living  monument  to  grit 
and  endurance,  expended  in  carrying  out  what  he  believed 
to  be  his  duty  as  a  public  servant.  What  a  pity  there  are  not 
more  like  him  !  The  ingratitude  of  republics  came  in  when 
Downing,  owing  to  the  fact  that  he  could  not  get  the  mail 
carried  as  promptly  while  he  was  laid  up  in  the  hospital  as 
it  was  carried  before,  lost  his  contract  with  the  United 
States  postal  authorities;  the  higher  appreciation  of  the 
Dominion  Government  rewarded  him  with  a  contract  to 
carry  the  royal  mail  between  Eagle  and  Dawson. 

Downing  is  an  authority  on  dogs.  He  has  a  corral  near 
Dawson  where  he  has  a  hundred  or  more  of  these  faithful 
animals,  which  he  uses  in  his  mail-carrying  business  in  win- 
ter. There  are  two  kinds  of  dogs  common  in  Alaska — 
the  "  huskies  "  and  their  cross-breeds  from  the  Mackenzie 


CROSSING  THE  ARCTIC  CIRCLE 


91 


River  country — those  stocky,  grey  fellows,  with  their  short, 
erect  ears  and  close,  thick  coat,  intelligent  and  handsome — 
and  the  "  malamute,"  an  Alaska  Indian  dog  crossed  with 
the  wolf  and  resembling  the  wolf  a  good  deal  in  shape  and 


Miner  and  Dogs  Rigged  for  Packing 

size,  a  shaggy  brownish-grey  fellow,  friendly  and  tractable 
and  a  perfect  slave.  These  animals  are  grossly  abused  by 
the  Indians;  they  haul  their  sledges  all  day  to  be  rewarded 
at  night  with  a  piece  of  frozen  dog-salmon  and  a  chance  to 
curl  up  in  the  snow  to  sleep.  With  such  treatment  the  dog 
gets  the  reputation  of  not  being  an  affectionate  creature. 
Downing's  dogs  have  warm,  comfortable  shelter  whenever 
they  reach  a  roadhouse;  when  he  is  compelled  to  camp  by 


92  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

the  roadside,  as  sometimes  happens,  they  share  his  tent,  curl 
up  around  him  and  protect  him  with  the  warmth  of  their 
own  bodies  and  whenever  he  enters  the  corral  they  are  wild 
in  their  demonstrations  of  delight.  "  Don't  tell  me,"  said 
Downing,  "  that  these  fellows  are  not  affectionate.  I  wish 
some  good  woman  would  take  a  notion  some  day  to  like 
me  half  as  much  as  they  do."  If  she  does  she  will  have  to 
tell  him;  Ben  would  not  dare  to  ask  her. 

Although  of  a  kindly  disposition  toward  humankind 
these  brutes  are  often  very  quarrelsome  among  themselves 
and  it  is  the  general  rule  that  when  a  fight  begins  there  is 
no  sympathy  for  the  under  dog  among  the  rest  of  the 
pack.  On  the  contrary,  the  poor  fellow  who  is  getting  the 
worst  of  it  is  likely  to  be  beset  by  all  the  rest  and  literally 
torn  to  pieces. 

Don't  think  I  overestimate  the  dog.  He  is  one  of  the  in- 
stitutions in  Alaska.  He,  as  a  judge  on  the  bench  recently 
said  in  an  Alaska  case,  "  is  one  of  the  most  important 
factors  in  the  development  of  his  country."  What  the  ox 
was  to  the  pioneer  of  the  Wabash  valley,  what  the  horse  is 
to  the  ranchman  of  the  plains,  what  the  camel  is  to  the 
denizen  of  the  desert,  the  dog  has  been  to  the  miner  and 
prospector  of  Alaska,  and  will  be  till  the  United  States  . 
Government  manifests  as  much  Interest  in  Alaska  as 
Canada  does  in  the  Yukon  territory  and  builds  roads  over 
which  freight  may  be  hauled  in  wagons.  Under  the  pres- 
ent conditions  it's  a  poor  dog  that  isn't  worth  $25  and  one 
team  of  five  was  sold  in  Dawson  for  $2,500. 

Eagle,  I  have  said,  is  a  town  w^ith  a  future.  There  are 


CROSSING  THE  ARCTIC  CIRCLE  93 

two  towns  In  Alaska,  400  miles  apart,  which  are  longing 
for  the  day  when  a  railroad  will  connect  them;  one  is  Val- 
dez  on  the  south,  at  the  head  of  Prince  William  Sound,  and 
the  other  is  Eagle  on  the  Yukon.  In  1899  the  Gov^ern- 
ment  undertook  to  build  a  road  from  Valdez  to  Eagle  and 
did  expend  considerable  money  bridging  streams  and  laying 
out  a  trail  through  the  forests  and  over  the  mountains,  and 
on  this  trail  the  mail  is  carried  between  Valdez  and  Eagle. 
A  Government  telegraph  line  follows  this  trail  from  Valdez 
to  Eagle  and  a  railroad  is  projected  over  this  route.  Some 
day  it  will  be  built.  How  soon  no  one  can  tell.  Valdez 
is  living  in  hope  of  this  road.  A  wagon  road  part  of  the 
way  would  greatly  benefit  Valdez ;  a  wagon  road  all  of  the 
way  would  be  of  immense  value  to  Eagle,  but  of  more 
immediate  importance  to  Eagle  would  be  a  system  of  roads 
extending  south  and  west  twenty-five  to  fifty  miles,  into  the 
Forty-Mile  mining  district.  This  district  is  mainly  on  the 
American  side  and  naturally  tributary  to  Eagle,  an  Ameri- 
can town,  but  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  Yukon  Govern- 
ment has  already  constructed  a  road  from  Dawson  to  the 
boundary  line  near  the  Forty-Mile  district,  the  trade  goes 
largely  to  Dawson,  because  supplies  can  be  transported  so 
much  cheaper  over  the  Dawson  road  than  they  can  be 
carried  over  the  miserable  trails  reaching  back  from  Eagle. 
The  senatorial  party  arrived  at  Eagle  on  Wednesday, 
the  15th.  Here,  as  at  Dawson,  the  stretches  of  the  river 
below  were  scanned  eagerly  with  field-glasses  every  day  for 
a  glimpse  of  the  Sarah.  I'\)ur  days  passed  and  yet  no 
sign  of  the  missing  boat.    It  happened,  however,  that  the 


(^         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

L  nitcd  States  army  transport,  Jefferson  C.  Davis,  in 
charge  of  Lieutenant  Kalde,  was  lying  at  Eagle  waiting 
orders  to  proceed  to  Dawson  to  convey  General  Funston 
down  the  river  on  his  tour  of  inspection  of  the  Alaskan 
military  posts.  Inasmuch  as  General  Funston  would  not 
need  the  transport  until  the  first  of  August,  arrangements 
were  made  to  have  it  convey  our  company  to  Rampart,  450 
miles  further  down  the  river,  where  Judge  Wickersham  of 
the  central  division  was  holding  court,  where  there  would 
be  opportunity  to  see  men  from  all  parts  of  central  Alaska 
and  where  it  was  hoped  some  boat  might  be  found  in 
which  to  continue  the  journey. 

We  left  Eagle  Saturday  at  noon.  The  river  here  main- 
tains about  the  same  characteristics  heretofore  noteci.  It 
growls  wider  and  carries  a  larger  volume  of  water,  but  is 
confined  within  reasonable  limits  for  the  next  100  miles. 
At  1 1  o'clock  at  night  we  sighted  the  town  of  Circle,  once 
a  place  of  considerable  importance,  and  although  it  was 
nearly  midnight  when  we  arrived,  the  leading  men  of  the 
place  presented  themselves  to  offer  any  courtesies  which  the 
senatorial  party  might  be  pleased  to  accept.  Among  the 
objects  of  interest  exhibited  here  was  a  field  of  oats  nearly 
arrived  at  the  heading-out  stage,  not  a  very  heavy  growth, 
but  still  of  good  colour  and  not  unpromising.  Experience 
is,  however,  that  this  crop  cannot  be  successfully  ripened 
in  that  country  and  is  valuable  only  as  forage.  The  mid- 

(  night  was  so  light  that  the  visit  to  Circle  was  made  without 
any  inconvenience  on  account  of  the  time  of  day. 

A  short  distance  below  Circle  City  the  river  begins  to 


A 


3 


o 


h 

c 


96  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

spread  out  and  at  the  widest  point  it  is  probably  twenty 
miles  in  width.  Navigation  through  these  Yukon  flats 
is  attended  with  great  difficulty.  1  he  stream  is  necessarily 
shallow,  being  spread  over  so  wide  an  area,  and  it  keeps 
the  navigators  guessing  to  follow  the  channel.  The  chan- 
nel shifts  continually,  and  while  it  may  be  in  one  place  at 
one  time,  a  month  later  or  next  year  it  may  be  miles  away. 
There  are  no  buoys  or  beacons  and  the  pilots,  who  are  often 
Indians,  read  the  w^ater  and  tell  by  its  appearance  where  to 
go,  although  the  boiling,  muddy  flood  looks  about  the  same 
everywhere  to  inexperienced  eyes. 

The  next  morning  after  leaving  Circle  we  were  called 
early  that  we  might  all  see  a  large,  handsome  river  steamer 
lying  on  a  sandbar  at  one  side  of  the  channel.  On  her  pilot 
house  we  read  the  name  Sarah.  We  learned  later  that  she 
had  been  on  the  sandbar  for  three  days  already  and  her 
situation  indicated  that  it  would  probably  be  as  many  more 
before  she  could  escape,  and  it  was. 

About  II  o'clock  of  Sunday,  July  19,  we  crossed  the 
Arctic  Circle  and  the  whole  party  lined  up  on  the  upper 
deck  for  a  photograph  taken  within  the  Frigid  Zone. 
Everybody  tried  hard  to  imagine  what  it  meant  to  cross  the 
Arctic  Circle  and  stand  within  the  realm  supposed  to  be 
given  up  to  perpetual  ice  and  snow,  but  it  was  not  an  easy 
thing  to  do.  There  were  no  shivers  running  down  our 
backs,  no  frost  in  the  air,  no  rubbing  of  noses  and  ears,  but 
rather  the  balmy  air  of  an  early  October  day  in  Minnesota. 
It  was  at  noon  of  such  a  day  when  we  touched  at  Fort 
Yukon,  an  abandoned  military  post,  about  six  miles  north 


CROSSING  THE  ARCTIC  CIRCLE  97 

of  the  Arctic  Circle,  and  the  most  northerly  point  on  the 
Yukon  River.  At  one  time  it  was  important  in  the  fur 
trade,  and  the  old  buildings  of  the  trading  post  are  still 
standing,  but  the  fur  business  has  disappeared  and  has 
left  only  a  small  Indian  village.  The  decline  of  the  fur 
trade  under  the  cruel  game  laws  of  Alaska,  which  rob  the 
Indian  of  a  market  for  his  furs  at  the  season  when  they  are 
most  marketable,  has  left  these  people  without  any  means 
of  support  adequate  to  their  necessities;  the  Government  of 
the  United  States  makes  no  appropriations  for  the  care  of 
the  Indians  of  Alaska  and  their  condition  is  deplorable. 
Religious  exercises  were  in  progress  in  the  log  cabin  near 
the  landing,  a  lay  reader,  a  full-blooded  Athabaskan,  con- 
ducting the  service.  Indian  oratory,  as  exemplified  by  Wil- 
liam Loola,  is  anything  but  dramatic  and  vociferous.  In  a 
quiet  and  devout  manner  he  read  the  lessons  of  the  day 
and  led  his  fellow  parishioners  through  the  Episcopal  ser- 
vice, winding  up  with  a  hymn,  and  all,  of  course,  in  the 
Indian  language.  The  missionary,  Mr.  Wooden,  was  not 
at  home;  he  was  on  the  Sarah,  bound  for  Dawson,  for 
which  he  had  started  three  days  before,  but  towards  which 
he  had  made  but  little  progress.  His  wife  and  children, 
two  small  boys,  with  the  trader's  family,  were  the  only 
white  people  in  this  settlement. 

The  remainder  of  the  day  was  spent  on  the  monotonous 
waste  of  the  Yukon  flats.  The  next  morning,  Monday, 
July  20,  we  arrived  at  the  village  of  Rampart,  620  miles 
from  Dawson. 


V 

THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  ALASKA 

A  DAP TATION  to  his  surroundings  is  one  of  the 
y— \  human  animal's  strong  points.  He  can  make  him- 
-*-  -*^  self  at  home,  r.s  he  phrases  it,  almost  anywhere 
and  under  almost  any  conditions.  I  found  an  illustration  of 
this  peculiar  and  serviceable  faculty  in  the  heart  of  Alaska. 
It  was  at  Rampart,  so  I  am  told,  that  a  philosopher,  who 
wished  to  preserve  the  natural  and  accustomed  order  of 
things,  with  as  little  dislocation  as  possible,  provided  him- 
self wMth  a  daily  paper  for  each  of  his  long  winter  even- 
ings. He  was  2,000  miles  from  any  daily  newspaper  office 
and  the  winter  mails  carried  no  newspapers,  yet  he  had  his 
daily  paper  and  kept  posted  in  a  way  on  all  the  important 
news  of  the  world.  The  way  he  managed  that  was  simple 
enough,  as  you  will  admit.  He  knew  that  there  was  no 
paper  mail  delivered  at  Rampart  from  October  15  to  the 
following  Fourth  of  July,  so  he  subscribed  in  the  fall  for  a 
daily  paper  published  In  the  States  and  had  it  sent  in  by 
freight  the  next  spring.  When  the  papers  arrived  he 
stacked  them  up  in  regular  order,  the  one  of  earliest  date 
on  top  and  when  he  sat  down  with  his  pipe  by  his  cabin 
fire  in  the  evening  he  took  up  the  first  paper  on  the  pile 
and  read  up  the  news  of  the  day.  Of  course,  he  knew 
that  what  he  read  was  nearly  a  year  old  to  the  people  in 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  ALASKA     99 

the  States,  but  what  was  that  to  him  ?  His  daily  paper  was 
just  as  new  to  him  then  as  it  ever  had  been  to  the  folks 
at  home. 

This  story,  whether  strictly  true  or  not,  throws  some 
light  upon  what  life  in  the  heart  of  Alaska  means,  and 
Rampart  comes  pretty  near  being  in  the  heart  of  Alaska. 
It  is  about  half-way  down  the  Yukon  from  Dawson  to 
Bering  Sea.  Imagine  a  turgid  stream  half  a  mile  wide, 
flowing  between  sloping  hillsides,  rather  sparsely  wooded 
with  an  inferior  grade  of  spruce  and  birch,  a  thick  mat  of 
tangled  vines  and  moss  covering  the  ground  with  a  soft, 
wet,  spongy  carpet  eight  or  ten  inches  thick,  shielding 
the  frozen  earth  from  the  rays  of  the  sun,  and  on 
the  high  left  bank  of  this  stream  locate  a  somewhat 
'irregular  line  of  one-  and  two-story  log  houses  front- 
ing the  river  for  over  halt  a  mile,  with  a  few  scattered 
cabins  on  the  hillside  above;  fill  these  river-front  houses 
with  merchandise,  dry  and  wet,  throw  in  a  small  frame 
telegraph  station  of  a  local  line,  a  little  white  building  for 
the  accommodation  of  the  federal  court,  tack  up  a  lawyer's 
sign  or  two  and  hang  out  a  single  doctor's  sign,  write  the 
initials  of  the  Northern  Commercial  and  the  North  Ameri- 
can transportation  and  Trading  companies  on  the  biggest 
buildings  in  town,  take  no  special  pains  to  preserve  a 
regular  street  line,  and  make  the  wooden  sidewalk  conform 
to  the  sinuosities  of  the  building  fronts,  sprinkle  the  side- 
walk and  the  sloping  river  bank  liberally  with  sleeping 
dogs,  fill  up  the  town  with  300  or  400  people  from  every- 
where, living  in  peace  and  harmony  with  each  other,  and 


loo         ALASKA  AND    rili:  KLONDIKE 

you  have  Rampart,  which  was  the  hospitable  tarrying 
place  of  the  senatorial  committee  from  July  20  to  July  23. 

It  was  the  same  old  story  of  nothing-too-good  for  the 
senatorial  party  and  "  whatever  we  have  is  yours."  Men 
vacated  their  beds  and  changed  their  boarding  places  and 
abandoned  their  business  that  they  might  contribute  to  the 
comfort  and  pleasure  of  the  senatorial  visitors  and  their 
party. 

You  may  be  at  a  loss  to  account  for  this  town,  and  for 
the  considerable  stocks  of  merchandise  which  fill  the  stores 
of  the  big  trading  and  transportation  companies,  but  down 
on  the  river  bank  you  may  see  several  thousand  feet  of 
iron  piping  waiting  till  the  ground  freezes  up  to  be  taken 
back  into  the  interior  together  with  a  lot  of  other  mining 
machinery  and  you  will  find  that  there  are  several  more  or 
less  important  mining  districts  supplied  from  this  point, 
among  them,  some  comparatively  rich  diggings  on  Minook 
Creek. 

Rampart  is  pretty  lively  when  we  arrive.  Court  is  about 
to  sit,  and  lawyers  and  litigants,  witnesses  and  prisoners 
are  here  In  such  numbers  that  beds  in  severalty,  so  to 
speak,  are  hard  to  get.  They  come  for  hundreds  of  miles 
and  spend  weeks  in  getting  here,  and  we  know  of  some 
who  would  be  glad  to  be  here  but  cannot  come  because  the 
sandbars  of  the  Yukon  hold  fast  the  boats  in  which  they 
must  ride.  They  are  also  waiting  for  the  Sarah. 

If  you  ask  any  Alaskan  what  the  people  of  that  district 
want  most  at  the  hands  of  Congress  you  will  learn  that  the 
first   thing   the   Government   at  Washington   is   expected 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  ALASKA    loi 


to  do  for  them  is  to  give  them  representation  in  Congress — 
a  delegate  to  look  after  their  interests  just  as  our  congress- 
men in  the  States  are  supposed  to  look  after  ours.  They 
want  other  things,  too — good  roads,  revision  of  the  mining 


-1 

lil'TS 

• 

j 

1 ,  ^ 

>   ' 

t 

1 

"^ 

1' 

1 

1 

^ 

Bargain  Day  at  Rampart 

laws  and  many  are  particularly  anxious  for  territorial  go\^- 
ernment.  On  this  latter  point  the  Alaskans  are  not  unan- 
imous, but  there  is  no  dissent  from  the  proposition  that 
Alaska  should  have  a  delegate  in  Congress.  There  is  some 
question,  however,  as  to  how  he  should  be  chosen — whether 
elected  or  appointed.  But  the  desire  for  a  delegate  is  uni- 
versal, is  natural  and  reasonable,  and  Congress  will  no  tloubt 
provide  for  such  representative  in  some  way  at  an  early  date, 


I02  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

Rampart  is  one  ol  the  places  where  Judge  James 
Wickersham,  of  the  central  Alaska  judicial  division,  holds 
court.  His  district  is  500  miles  wide  and  900  miles  long. 
It  extends  from  the  North  Pacific  Ocean  to  the  Arctic 
Ocean  and  from  the  international  boundary  on  the  east  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Koyukuk.  There  isn't  a  mile  of  railroad 
in  it  and  no  wagon  road  worthy  of  the  name.  The  means 
of  transportation  are  steamers  along  the  south  coast  and 
on  the  Yukon  River,  which  runs  through  the  middle  of 
the  district.  When  court  is  held  at  Eagle  or  Rampart 
for  the  accommodation  of  the  people  of  the  central  and 
northern  parts  of  the  district,  justice  costs  time  and 
money.  One  man.  Judge  McKenzie,  United  States  com- 
missioner at  Cold  Foot  on  the  upper  Koyukuk,  travelled 
900  miles  and  27  days  to  get  to  Rampart  to  attend 
court. 

In  Alaska  the  administration  of  the  laws  is  committed 
to  three  federal  judges  and  the  commissioners  whom  the 
judges  appoint.  The  federal  court  issues  all  licenses,  fran- 
chises and  charters  and  collects  all  occupation  taxes.  The 
commissioners  correspond  to  the  justices  of  the  peace  in 
the  States  with  the  added  functions  of  coroner,  recorder 
and  probate  judge.  Every  settlement  or  village  or  mining 
district  of  importance  where  there  are  200  or  more  men 
has  a  commissioner,  who  is  practically  the  whole  thing  so 
far  as  the  enforcement  of  law  is  concerned.  These  com- 
missioners are  usually  selected  with  great  care  and  as  a 
rule  are  a  superior  grade  of  men.  It  is  important  that  they 
should  be  so  selected,  as  appeal  from  them  to  the  federal 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  ALASKA    103 

judge  nearly  always  involves  great  expense  for  transporta- 
tion of  principals  and  witnesses  to  the  established  places 
of  holding  court. 

Rampart  was  full  of  litigants  and  attorneys  and  wit- 
nesses from  Eagle  and  Circle  City,  from  the  upper  Koyu- 


Dog  Power  at  Rampart 

kuk  and  the  Tanana  and  other  places  in  the  interior. 
Some  criminal  business  was  pending,  a  grand  jury  was  em- 
panelled and  the  regular  machinery  of  justice  was  set 
going  the  first  day  of  the  term.  The  presence  of  men  of 
prominence  from  various  places  in  the  central  and  northern 
parts  of  the  central  judicial  division  afforded  peculiar  aci- 
vantages  for  gaining  information  about  the  resources  of 


I04         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

the  country,  the  condition  of  the  people,  the  efficiency  of 
the  administrative  machinery  and  the  prevaihng  sentiment 
as  to  what  action  on  the  part  of  Congress  is  desired  by  the 
people  and  would  best  promote  the  interests  of  the  district. 
A  couple  of  young  men  on  board  a  steamship  sailing 
between  Seattle  and  Skagway  developed  the  idea  that  inas- 
much as  they  were  going  far  from  home  and  into  a  country 
where  every  man  is  supposed  to  look  out  for  himself,  cir- 
cumstances might  arise  where  it  would  be  a  good  thing 
to  have  friends,  and  that  probably  the  best  way  to  provide 
for  such  emergencies  was  to  organise  a  fraternal  and 
mutual  benefit  society.  That  was  four  years  ago,  or  more. 
The  result  of  this  thought  is  a  secret  sodety  known  as  the 
Arctic  Brotherhood,  of  which  there  are  camps  in  all  the 
settlements  and  towns  of  any  consequence  in  Alaska. 
There  was  a  camp  of  the  Arctic  Brotherhood  at  Rampart. 
This  fraternity  has  a  building  of  its  own  there,  containing  ^7 
a  good-si zedlTaHsn  which~Tt  holdsTfs  reguTaFmeetmgs  and 
which  serves  as  a  public  hall  for  the  town  and  a  sort  of 
social  centre.  A  feature  of  the  hospitality  extended  to  the 
senatorial  party  was  a  "  smoker,"  the  night  before  w^e  left, 
at  the  A.  B.  hall.  This  social  session  was  presided  over 
by  Judge  Claypool,  United  States  commissioner  at  Circle, 
who  was  in  Rampart  attending  court.  Claypool  belongs 
to  the  prominent  Indiana  family  of  that  name,  and  sus- 
tains the  reputation  of  the  family  for  intellectual  clever- 
ness and  capacity.  The  impromptu  programme  developed 
the  existence  of  considerable  talent  for  entertaining  on  the 
part  of  the  citizens  of  Rampart.  At  this  evening  entertain- 


u 


io6         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

incut  it  occurred  to  sonic  member  of  tlie  Arctic  Brother- 
IuhhI  that  it  \\\)Lild  he  a  capital  idea  to  inxite  the  members 
of  the  senatorial  party  to  become  honorary  members  of  the 
fraternity.  The  senators  expressed  their  appreciation  of 
the  compliment,  and  a  meeting  for  the  purposes  of  initiat- 
ing by  special  dispensation  was  called  for  1 1  o'clock  the 
next  day. 

Initiation  into  the  Arctic  Brotherhood,  it  can  be  stated 
without  revealing  any  of  the  secrets  or  violating  the  solemn 
oath,  is  attended  at  times  with  experiences  which  the 
initiates  are  not  likely  soon  to  forget.  While  it  was  pro- 
posed to  have  a  special  dispensation  for  the  senatorial 
party,  applying  the  forms  of  regular  initiation  to  some 
other  candidates,  one  member  of  our  party  expressed  an 
unwillingness  to  be  made  the  object  of  special  favours  Li 
the  way  of  initiation  and  a  preference  for  induction  Into  the 
mysteries  of  the  order  In  the  regular  way.  The  members 
of  the  camp  were  quite  ready  to  take  him  at  his  word, 
and  it  Is  sufficient  to  say  that  the  Initiation  was  thorough 
and  complete,  to  the  great  edification  and  entertainment 
of  his  fellow  travellers.  The  victim  was  Will  H.  Brill,  a 
newspaper  man  who  had  joined  our  company  after  we  en- 
tered Alaska,  and  who  has  since  taken  several  more  degrees 
as  a  war  correspondent  with  the  Japanese  army. 

The  Arctic  Brotherhood  Is  really  an  excellent  organisa- 
tion, serving  purposes  substantially  similar  to  those  pro- 
moted by  such  organisations  as  the  Knights  of  Pythias  and 
the  Odd  Fellows.  There  Is  a  camp  at  Seattle  composed  of 
Alaska  men,  and  it  was  this  body  which  provided  a  special 


io8         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

entertainment  lor  President  Roose\elt  when  he  was  in  that 
city  two  years  ago,  at  which  he  took  occasion  to  make  the 
speech  with  regard  to  Ahiska  which  attracted  so  much 
attention  at  the  time.  At  this  meeting  of  the  Rampart 
camp  notice  was  taken  of  President  Roosevelt's  extraor- 
dinary interest  in  Alaska  and  hy  action  of  the  camp  the 
President  was  invited  to  become  and  was  duly  elected  as  an 
honorary  member  of  the  brotherhood,  and  the  senators 
were  commissioned  to  convey  to  him  formal  notice  of  his 
election.  The  emblem  of  this  society,  worn  by  members, 
is  a  small  bronze  button  in  the  form  of  a  miner's  pan  with 
the  letters  A.  B.  at  the  top,  and  on  the  lower  edge  three 
small  gold  nuggets. 

As  It  happened  that  all  the  senators  were  lawyers,  it 
was  also  suggested  that  they  ought  to  be  members  of  the 
Alaska  bar.  They  were  accordingly  invited  to  enrol  them- 
selves among  the  legal  fraternity  of  the  district  and  having 
been  brought  before  Judge  Wickersham  and  having  ex- 
hibited sufficient  legal  attainments  and  the  proper  qualifica- 
tions in  all  other  respects,  good  moral  character,  etc.,  were 
duly  admitted.  Down  at  Sitka  there  is  an  institution  of  no 
little  value  historically  and  scientifically,  known  as  the 
Sheldon  Jackson  museum.  It  is  provided  by  law  that  all 
fees  for  admission  to  the  bar  shall  be  applied  to  the  main- 
tenance of  that  institution,  so  that  the  Sitka  museum,  to 
which  the  senators  paid  a  visit  a  month  later,  was  enriched 
to  the  extent  of  $40  by  this  action,  which  also  increased  the 
membership  of  the  bar  of  Alaska  by  adding  four  distin- 
guished names  from  the  roll  of  the  United  States  Senate. 


u 


no         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

Rampart  was  an  Indian  \illage  before  it  became  an 
important  station  in  the  commercial  system  of  the  trans- 
portation and  trading  companies,  and  just  across  the 
mouth  of  the  Little  iMinook  is  the  Indian  village  of  which 
William  Pitgu  is  chief.  Here  is  a  collection  of  Indian 
cabins  and  on  the  racks  in  front  are  strung  the  red  salmon 
which  the  Indians  are  drying  and  smoking  for  their  winter 
supply.  As  previously  stated,  these  Alaskan  Indians  ap- 
preciate the  comforts  of  warm  log  houses  in  winter,  but 
they  almost  invariably  betake  themselves  to  tents  and 
wickiups  in  summer,  or  during  the  salmon  season.  In  the 
house  of  William  Pitgu,  to  which  I  was  invited  by  the 
hospitable  chief,  and  which  in  point  of  cleanliness  and 
furnishings  was  very  much  the  best  Indian  habitation  seen 
in  Alaska  outside  of  Metlakahtla,  I  found  his  son  and  his 
son's  wife  sewnng  canvas  and  making  a  tent  and  the  young 
man  displayed  quite  as  much  skill  in  running  a  sewing 
machine  as  he  had  in  the  construction  of  the  long- 
boat which  carried  me  across  the  Minook  to  his  father's 
village. 

They  say  that  in  Alaska  the  worm  never  turns  and  then 
they  rather  tardily  explain  this  departure  from  nature's  law 
by  the  further  statement  that  there  are  no  worms.  It  is 
also  capable  of  demonstration  that  the  cellars  in  Alaska  are 
never  damp,  but  the  course  of  reasoning  is  not  quite  the 
same.  The  fact  is  the  Alaska  cellar  is  built  about  five  feet 
above  ground.  They  call  it  a  "  cache,"  and  pronounce  it 
cash.  It  is  to  all  appearances  a  little  log  cabin  set  up  on 
poles,  the  entrance  to  which  is  by  means  of  a  ladder  made 


112         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

out  of  a  notched  log,  and  here,  high  above  the  reach  of  the 
dogs  and  other  prowling  animals,  are  stored  the  family 
supplies. 

I'he  white  man,  however,  has  not  adhered  strictly  to 
the  Indian  custom,  for  the  leading  refreshment  place  of 
the  village  has  a  refrigerator  for  the  preservation  of  fresh 
meats  and  other  articles  which  are  improved  by  a  low 
temperature.  Here,  as  everywhere  else  in  Alaska,  the 
frost  never  leaves  the  ground  to  a  depth  of  more  than  two 
or  three  feet,  and  all  that  is  necessary  to  provide  an  icebox 
is  to  dig  to  the  depth  of  three  or  four  feet  where  perishable 
food  supplies  may  be  kept  in  constant  cold  storage.  A  box 
is  let  down  into  the  excavation  where,  surrounded  by  the 
perpetual  ice,  the  temperature  of  a  first-class  refrigerator 
plant  is  constantly  maintained.  The  use  of  such  devices  in 
hotels  and  domestic  establishments  furnishes  an  obvious 
answer  to  the  query  as  to  the  desirability  of  being  the  ice- 
man in  Alaska. 

In  numerous  places  in  Alaska  the  enormous  ivory  tusks 
of  the  mastodon  were  met  with.  These  remnants  of  the 
animal  life  of  a  past  age  are  supposed  to  prove  that  at 
some  time  or  other  the  earth  has  slipped  upon  Its  axis, 
changed  the  direction  of  Its  diurnal  revolution  and  that 
what  is  now  the  Frigid  Zone  was  once  within  the  Torrid 
belt.  Of  late  that  theory  has  been  combated  by  those  who 
contend  that  the  mastodon  was  not  necessarily  the  denizen 
of  a  \varm  country  and  that  the  climate  of  the  north  has 
not  necessarily  changed.  However  that  may  be,  all  relics 
of  prehistoric  days  are  suggestive  to  the  imagination  and 


o 
PQ 


114         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

no  little  interest  was  excited  by  the  discoxery  on  the  roof 
of  one  of  the  Rampart  cabins  ol  a  pair  of  enormous  horns 
joined  together  by  a  portion  of  the  skull  of  the  animal 
to  which  they  once  belonged.  These  horns  were  found  by 
some  miners  digging  in  the  gravel  of  Little  Minook  creek 
not  far  from  Rampart.  They  were  embedded  at  a  depth 
of  twenty-two  feet  below  the  surface  and  w^ere  in  a  re- 
markable state  of  preservation.  They  measured  three  feet 
and  ten  inches  at  the  widest  spread  and  fifteen  and  a  half 
inches  in  circumference.  The  tips  curved  inward  something 
after  the  manner  of  buffalo  horns,  but  the  pair  were  much 
larger  than  the  horns  of  the  American  bison.  Colonel 
Timothy  E.  Wilcox,  deputy  surgeon  general  of  the  United 
States  army,  who  first  joined  our  party  at  Juneau,  and 
subsequently  fell  in  with  us  again  at  Eagle,  and  who  was 
on  a  tour  of  inspection  of  the  hospital  service  and  sanitary 
condition  of  the  Alaska  military  posts,  obtained  from  the 
owner  of  these  horns  permission  to  forward  them  to  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  where  they  may  now  be  seen. 
This  was  the  most  perfect  pair  of  horns  of  this  kind  ever 
found  in  Alaska,  so  that  this  contribution  to  the  Smith- 
sonian collection  is  no  doubt  a  valuable  one. 

I  believe  the  time  will  come  when  Alaska  will  produce 
its  own  dairy  products,  but  the  beginnings  are  certainly 
very  small.  One  of  them  is  at  Rampart,  where  a  daughter 
of  the  Scandinavian  peninsula  was  found  one  day  in  a 
high  state  of  excitement  because  one  of  her  two  red  cows, 
the  only  two  of  the  species  for  hundreds  of  miles  in  any 
direction,  seemed  about  to  choke  to  death  on  a  potato. 


c 


ii6         ALASKA  AND    11  Ii:  KLONDIKE 

FLippily  she  did  not,  but  think  what  that  would  have 
meant  to  the  dairymaid  with  milk  at  $i  a  quart. 

Rampart  is  the  present  terminus  of  the  telegraph  line 
which  runs  southward  to  the  Tanana  River,  along  the 
Tanana  to  the  Yukon,  down  the  Yukon  to  St.  Michael.  Of 
course  a  matter  of  great  interest  to  us  was  the  discovery 
of  some  way  to  continue  our  journey  down  the  river.  By 
means  of  this  telegraph  line  we  were  able  to  arrange  for 
the  use  of  the  army  transport  stationed  at  Fort  Gibbon 
to  carry  us  down  to  Nulato,  where  the  Healy,  a  boat  be- 
longing to  the  North  American  Transportation  and  Tracl- 
ing  company  had  orders  to  await  our  arrival.  And  so  on 
the  23d  of  July  we  left  our  hospitable  friends  at  Rampart 
on  the  transport  Van  Vliet,  with  a  parting  salute  from  the 
members  of  the  Arctic  Brotherhood,  who  lined  up  on  shore 
and,  as  our  boat  swung  out  into  the  stream,  gave  with  such 
striking  fidelity  of  imitation  the  "  malamute  "  yell  that 
the  "  malamute  "  dogs  themselves  presently  joined  in  the 
lugubrious  wail.  We  were  afloat  again  on  the  Yukon,  with 
a  reasonable  assurance  this  time  that  uur  progress  to  the 
sea  would  not  meet  with  serious  interruption. 

Shortly  after  midnight  we  arrived  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Tanana  River,  seventy-five  miles  below  Rampart, 
where  to  one  end  of  the  settlement  occupied  by  one  trad- 
ing company  Is  given  the  name  of  Weare,  while  to  the 
other,  occupied  by  the  other  commercial  company,  is  given 
the  name  of  Tanana;  and  between  them  lies  a  military  post 
known  as  Fort  Gibbon.  Here  was  stationed  a  company 
of  the  Eighth  Regiment,  under  Captain  Gerhardt.  A  halt 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  ALASKA    117 

was  made  long  enough  to  afford  Colonel  Wilcox  an  op- 
portunity to  make  his  official  inspection,  long  enough  to 
inspect  the  buildings  at  the  post  and  the  garden  of  the 
commercial  agent,  and  to  enjoy  a  lunch  set  out  by  Mr. 
Windes,  agent  of  the  North  American  Trading  and  Trans- 
portation company,  which  would  have  done  credit  to  any 
club  or  hotel  in  Minneapolis. 

At  Fort  Gibbon  stands  a  tall  iron  tower  equipped  with 
wireless  telegraphic  apparatus  as  a  part  of  a  system  con- 
necting the  line  from  Valdez  to  Eagle,  from  the  point 
where  it  crosses  the  Tanana  River,  with  the  line  down  the 
river  to  St.  Michael,  from  which  point  the  wireless  sys- 
tem is  employed  again  to  convey  the  messages  across  Nor- 
ton Sound  to  Nome.  A  cable  was  laid  across  that  sound  a 
year  or  two  ago,  but  the  ice  ground  it  Into  small  pieces  in 
the  spring,  showing  that  a  cable  is  Impracticable  there. 

It  was  10  o'clock  the  next  night,  July  24,  when  we  over- 
hauled the  Healy,  Captain  Holscher,  at  the  Indian  village 
of  Nulato.  The  lower  Yukon  possesses  less  of  Interest, 
scenically,  than  the  upper  stretches  of  that  great  river, 
and  yet  the  roll  of  its  mighty  flood  onward  towards  the 
sea  carries  the  traveller  through  many  miles  of  interest- 
ing and  picturesque  country.  The  general  characteristics 
of  the  landscape  are  lower  mountain  and  hill  elevations, 
smaller  timber,  with  occasional  ramparts  of  solid  rock 
showing  the  effects  of  volcanic  action  and  great  disturb- 
ance of  the  earth's  surface. 

Late  Saturday  afternoon,  July  24,  we  reached  the  vil- 
lage of  Anvik,  an  Indian  settlement  at  the  mouth  of  the 


ii8 


ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 


Am  ik  l\i\  cr.  Wc  had  been  told  before  going  to  Alaska 
that  the  trip  down  the  Yukon  could  not  be  made  comfort- 
ably without  shields  from 
the  mosquitoes.  No  occa- 
sion to  use  them,  however, 
had  offered  until  this  day, 
and  none  had  been  pro- 
vided. While  some  annoy- 
ance from  mosquitoes  was 
experienced  on  deck  during 
the  day,  we  were  quite  un- 
prepared for  the  attack 
made  upon  us  as  the  gang- 
plank touched  the  shore  at 
this  Indian  settlement. 

A      picturesque      Indian 
graveyard  had  attracted  at- 
tention as  we  swung  around 
to  the  landing  in  the  mouth 
of    the    Anvik    River,    and 
thither  several  members  of 
the     party     had     hastened. 
The  graves  were  on  a  hill- 
side covered  w^ith  rank  grass 
and    vines    and    shrubbery, 
out  of  which  rose  clouds  of 
mosquitoes   and   small   black   gnats,    almost  blinding   the 
eyes  and  making  a  stay  of  only  a   few^  minutes  a  most 
painful  experience.  A  few  pictures  were  obtained,  but  not 


A  "Prominent  Citizen  "  ot  Anvik 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  ALASKA    119 

without  the  shedding  of  blood,  and  great  haste  was  made 
back  to  the  shelter  of  the  wire  screens  on  the  boat.  The 
graveyard  was,  however,  one  of  the  most  interesting  seen 
in  Alaska.  It  was  remarkable  for  the  number  and  variety 
of  articles  with  which  the  graves  were  decorated.  Nearly 
all  were  covered  with  small  wooden  structures  closely  re- 
sembling an  ordinary  chicken  coop,  on  the  top  of  which 
were  painted  rude  but  significant  designs  of  animals  and 
birds  and  fish,  while  the  articles  collected  on  these  graves 
included  guns,  snowshoes,  moccasins,  masks,  etc.  A  fa- 
vourite grave  decoration  was  a  big  tin  pan  mounted  bot- 
tom side  up  on  a  tall  pole.  While  we  marvel — and  let 
me  say  that  nobody  stopped  in  that  graveyard  long  enough 
to  do  any  marvelling  just  then — that  was  all  reserved  till 
after  we  were  safe  behind  the  Healy's  mosquito  bars — 
while  we  marvel  at  the  superstition  which  prompts  the  col- 
lection of  these  numerous  articles  on  the  graves  of  the  dead 
we  are  reminded  of  the  reply  of  the  Chinaman  to  the  ques- 
tion why  he  put  rice  on  the  grave  of  his  friend — whether 
he  thought  he  would  come  back  to  eat  it — when  he  said: 
"Yeppy;  all  samee  Melican  man  come  back  smellee 
posey."  The  propriety  of  it  all  depends  upon  the  view- 
point. Anvik  is  the  seat  of  an  Episcopal  mission  conducted 
by  Rev.  Mr.  Chapman,  who  has  spent  nine  years  here 
among  these  Indians,  many  of  whom  become  very  devout 
and   reasonably   consistent   converts   to    Christianity. 

It  was  10  o'clock  in  the  evening  and  cloudy,  but  not  yet 
dark,  when  the  Healy  stuck  her  nose  against  the  soft, 
muddy  bank  at  Holy  Cross,  the  largest  and  most  success- 


120         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

tul  of  the  Indian  missions  on  the  ri\cr.  This  institution 
is  under  the  supervision  of  the  Jesuits,  of  whom  Father 
George  de  la  Motte  of  Spokane  is  superior,  assisted  by 
members  of  the  Sisterhood  of  St.  Anne.  Father  Leopold 
\'an  Gorp  is  procurator  in  charge  and  associated  with  him 
is  Feather  John  Luchesi.  Several  brothers  of  the  same  order 
assist  in  the  teaching  and  in  the  manual  labour  of  the  insti- 
tution, which  is  considerable,  as  there  are  under  cultivation 
here  twenty-five  or  thirty  acres,  producing  fine  crops  of 
potatoes,  beans,  peas,  cauliflow^er,  cabbage,  lettuce,  radishes, 
turnips  and  other  vegetables.  This  is  the  best  demonstra- 
tion of  Alaska's  agricultural  possibilities  on  the  Yukon. 
There  are  about  150  Indians  attached  to  the  mission  and 
while  the  mission  buildings  were  substantial  log  structures, 
the  grounds  around  them  well  kept  and  the  situation  pic- 
turesque, the  conditions  that  prevailed  in  the  little  Indian 
village  that  lay  almost  in  front  of  the  mission,  along  the 
river  bank,  were  in  striking  and  pitiful  contrast.  Such 
squalor,  such  filth,  such  wretchedness  suggested  two  re- 
flections with  regard  to  this  mission — one,  viewing  the 
matter  from  the  standpoint  of  the  village,  of  w'onder  that 
the  Influence  of  the  mission  had  not  produced  a  better 
state  of  things  among  the  Indians,  and  the  other  of  won- 
der, viewing  the  matter  from  the  standpoint  of  the  mission 
school,  to  which  we  were  introduced,  that  so  much  had 
been  accomplished  by  the  fathers  and  the  sisters  out  of 
the  material  which  the  village  furnished. 

The  visit  of  the  senatorial  committee  had  been  expected 
for  more  than  a  week  and  so  eager  were  the  children  to  see 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  ALASKA    121 

the  senators  that  for  several  days  they  had  kept  watch  by 
relays  of  the  upper  river  from  a  high  bluff  above  the 
settlement.  When  we  arrived  the  children  of  the  school 
were  all  in  bed.   They  would  be  terribly  disappointed  if 


An  Afternoon  Tea  at  Anvik 

they  did  not  see  the  visitors.  Would  we  wait  till  they  could 
be  wakened  and  dressed  and  assembled  in  their  school- 
room? Of  course  we  would.  From  the  priest's  house  we 
were  presently  conducted  across  the  mission  grounds  to 
the  Sisters'  dormitory  and  school,  another  long,  log  build- 
ing banked  with  flowers  In  great  xaricty  and  abundance 
and  set  on  a  well-kept  lawn.  The  schoolroom  had  been 
prepared  for  the  occasion,  draped  tastefully  with  red  and 


122         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

white  bunting  and  decorated  with  sentiments  of  welcome 
in  letters  of  white  and  gilt.  Here  were  assembled  about 
twenty-five  girls  dressed  in  a  neat  school  uniform  and  rang- 
ing in  age  from  6  to  i6  years,  and  on  the  other  side  of  the 
room  as  many  boys  comfortably  clothed,  and  all  taken 
together,  a  very  presentable  and  intelligent-looking  lot  of 
children.  7  he  real  surprise  came,  however,  when  they 
began  to  carry  out  the  programme.  There  was  a  welcome 
song:  "Home,  Sweet  Home,"  and  "America,"  in  which 
the  peculiar  and  somewhat  metallic,  but  not  unpleasant, 
voices  ol  the  children  carried  the  four  parts  to  an  accom- 
paniment on  a  small  organ.  There  was  a  short  address  of 
welcome  read  by  one  of  the  larger  boys  and  a  response 
by  Senator  Dillingham.  Then  there  were  recitations  by 
the  smaller  children  that  would  have  done  credit  to  pupils 
of  the  same  age  in  the  Minneapolis  schools.  The  grave 
and  solemn  dignity,  the  sober,  serious  earnestness  which 
found  expression  in  the  demeanour  and  on  the  faces  of 
these  little  Innuits  and  Tinnehs  would  have  been  amusing 
if  it  had  not  really  commancied  our  respect.  One  might 
almost  wonder  if  these  children  could  laugh  and  shout  and 
play  and  have  fun  as  other  children  do,  but  another  visitor 
who  came  at  a  more  opportune  time  describes  some  of  the 
pranks  she  witnessed  which  go  to  show  that  while  the 
Indian  child  of  Alaska,  like  the  Indian  of  the  States, 
is  generally  owl-like  in  his  solemnity  as  long  as  white 
strangers  are  by,  he  is  not  at  all  lacking  in  the  spirit  of 
fun  or  the  capacity  to  express  it. 

This  school  is  conducted  by  Sister  Mary  Stephen,  whose 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  ALASKA    123 

strength  of  character  is  proclaimed  In  her  countenance,  and 
Sister  Mary  Winifred,  a  woman  of  striking  beauty  and 
gentleness  of  manner,  who,  when  asked  how  long  she  had 
been  here  among  the  Indians  and  how  long  she  expects 
to  stay,  replies  that  she  came  nine  years  ago  and  that  she 


Holy  Cross  Mission  Chapel 

bought  no  return  ticket.  Sister  Mary  Stephen  Is  asked  to 
furnish  a  photograph  of  the  school,  but  she  has  none 
and  so  the  children  are  grouped  outside  the  school  build- 
ing, and  those  of  us  who  have  cameras  take  pictures  of 
them  which  turn  out  fairly  well,  although  It  is  now  1 1 
o'clock   at  night. 

Ihe  mosquitoes  here  are  nearly  as  ferocious  as  they  were 
at  Anvik  and  we  are  soon  driven  back  again  on  board 
our  boat  in  sheer  defeat.  There  is  no  adequate  oppor- 


124 


ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 


tuiiitv  artordcd  here  to  Icarii  nuicli  of  the  practical  and 
peniianent  etiects  of  the  iiieiital  and  rehgious  training 
of  these  children,  for  they  cannot  always  be  kept  in 
the  school.  But  enough  is  gathered  there  and  elsewhere 
to  show  that  while  the  boys  in  most  cases  reap  permanent 
benefits  and  live  on  a  higher  level  than  their  parents  did, 
some  of  them  earning  good  wages  as  pilots  on  the  river, 
and  others  securing  other  kinds  of  profitable  employment, 
the  probleiT  of  the  girls  is  much  more  difficult  as  there  is 
almost  no  future  for  them  except  in  the  village  life  of  their 
own  people,  or  the  worse  fate  which  the  presence  of  white 
adventurers  so  often  brings.  The  condition  of  the  Alaska 
Indian  and  the  obligation  of  our  Government  to  him  are 
interesting  and  pressing  questions  which  must  receive  some 
consideration  further  on. 

The  first  sign  of  the  Russian  occupation  found  on  the 
Yukon  came  into  view  for  a  few  minutes  Sunday  afternoon, 
July  26.  It  was  the  little  Greek  church  at  Andraefski. 
There  is  an  old  Russian  mission  at  Ikogmute,  a  little  farther 
up,  but  we  pass  it  in  the  night  without  stopping.  The  little 
church  at  Andraefski  with  its  pale  blue  and  yellow  towers 
and  domes  and  crosses,  a  bit  of  Byzantine  architecture  set 
down  on  a  grassy  slope  of  a  lonesome,  treeless  hillside, 
beside  the  rolling  Yukon,  with  no  other  sign  of  human 
habitation  in  sight  except  a  few  Indian  huts  half  a  mile 
away,  was  a  curious  introduction  to  the  lingering  remnants 
of  the  work  of  Russia's  Holy  Synod.  We  do  not  stop,  but 
are  carried  on  toward  the  sea,  where  we  find,  all  along  the 
coast,  frequent  reminders  of  the  great  missionary  zeal  of 


THROUGH  THE  HEART  OF  ALASKA    125 

the  Greek  Church  and  its  stubborn  persistence.  And  that 
was  really  as  far  as  Russia's  occupation  went;  her  invasion 
of  the  interior  of  her  American  possessions  seldom  reached 
far  from  the  seashore. 

The  morning  of  July  27  brought  us  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Yukon  and  the  shores  of  Bering  Sea,  and  we  find  that  we 
have  travelled  the  great  artery  of  the  north,  from  White 


Indian  School  at  lini)    Li-j      \ii  .:'H 

Horse  to  the  ocean  for  a  distance  of  nearly  2,000  miles. 
It  appears,  too,  that  when  we  shall  have  reached  St. 
Michael,  sixty  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  the 
only  harbour  available  for  our  river  boat  on  that  shore 
of  Bering  Sea,  we  shall  have  travelled  1,600  miles  from 
Dawson. 


VI 

PHASES  OF  LIFE  ON  BERING  SEA 

SEVENTY-FIVE  miles  from  where  the  waters  of  the 
Yukon  mingle  with  the  restless  tides  of  Bering  Sea, 
they  begin  to  stray  out  over  the  low,  flat  wastes  that 
border  that  part  of  the  sea  known  as  Norton  Sound.  The 
banks  drop  low  and  the  tawny  floods  of  the  Yukon  delta 
spread  farther  and  farther  till,  almost  without  knowing 
just  where,  the  trav^eller  emerges  from  the  long  channel 
of  the  great  riv^er,  cut  nearly  2,000  miles  through  the  heart 
of  Alaska,  out  into  the  waters  of  the  western  sea.  The 
Yukon,  like  the  ancient  Nile  in  at  least  one  particular,  has 
seven  mouths,  the  most  southerly  of  which  is  ninety  miles 
by  sea-coast  measurement  from  the  most  northerly.  Boats 
from  the  upper  river  looking  for  a  harbour  must  take  this 
northern  channel  and  make  all  haste,  if,  fortunately,  they 
find  the  sea  quiet  enough  for  river  craft,  to  St.  Michael, 
sixty  miles  up  the  coast  from  the  mouth  of  the  northern 
outlet.  It  is  a  good  deal  like  going  to  sea  in  a  tub — this 
thing  of  venturing  out  on  Norton  Sound  in  a  flat-bottomed 
river  boat — and  is  never  undertaken,  without  some  degree 
of  trepidation  even  by  the  stout-hearted.  There  is  always 
the  serious  consideration  that  Bering  Sea  can  make  trouble 
for  river  craft  on  short  notice,  and  the  steady  progress 
which  the  boat  makes  running  at  full  speed  while  Captain 

126 


PHASES  OF  LIFE  ON  BERING  SEA      127 

Holscher  stands  in  the  wheel-house  closely  scanning  the 
open  sea  on  his  left,  suggests  the  thought  that  we  have 
caught  old  Neptune  asleep  and  are  trying  to  sneak  hy 
while  the  drowsy  fellow  isn't  looking. 

The  harbour  of  St.  Michael  lies  on  the  north  end  of  the 
island,  and  here  the  senatorial  party  arrived  on  the  after- 


Old  Russian  Blockhouse  at  St.  Michael 

noon  of  July  27.  I'hc  whole  island  is  a  military  reserva- 
tion and  no  commercial  or  transportation  interest  can  get  a 
foothold  there,  or  even  make  a  landing  or  pitch  a  tent,  ex- 
cept by  permission  of  the  Ihiitcd  States  Goxcrnmcnt. 
Several  trading  and  transportation  companies  engaged  in 


128         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

the  Alaskan  trade  have  obtained  concessions  here  and  have 
erected  docks  and  storehouses  and  hotels  and  houses  for 
their  agents  and  employees,  and  for  a  time  made  this  the 
great  shipping  centre  of  the  far  Northwest.  That  was  in 
the  boom  days  of  1898  and  '99  and  before  the  White 
Pass  railroad  diverted  the  larger  part  of  the  travel  and 
traffic  to  the  Klondike  to  the  shorter  route.  All  these  com- 
panies have  now  been  consolidated  into  two  or  rather  all 
but  one  have  been  merged  into  the  Northern  Commercial 
company,  the  one  declining  to  go  into  the  combination 
being  the  North  American  Transportation  and  Trading 
company,  which  shares  the  trade  and  traffic  not  only  of  the 
Yukon  but  of  the  Alaskan  coast. 

St.  Michael  was  occupied  in  1835  by  the  Russians,  who 
established  there  a  military  and  trading  post  for  the  pur- 
pose of  carrying  on  the  fur  trade  with  the  Indians  of  the 
lower  Yukon  country.  They  fortified  the  place.  Some  of 
the  old  Russian  storehouses  are  still  standing,  having  been 
incorporated  into  the  long  row  of  office  buildings  and 
storehouses  now  used  by  the  Northern  Commercial  com- 
pany. An  old,  hexagonal  blockhouse  on  the  most  promi- 
nent point  extending  out  into  the  harbour  is  still  the  reposi- 
tory of  half  a  dozen  little  rusty  Russian  cannon,  which 
were  once  mounted  here  and  at  other  places  around  the 
harbour.  The  island  is  treeless,  but  covered  with  a  heavy 
growth  of  coarse,  red-top  grass,  moss  and  vines.  Captain 
I.  N.  Hibbard,  superintendent  of  transportation  for  the 
Northern  Commercial  company,  and  Captain  O.  J.  Hum- 
phrey, who  occupies  a  like  position  for  the  North  Ameri- 


Belles  of  St.  Michael 


130         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

can  Transportation  and  Trading  company,  entertained  the 
senatorial  party  most  hospitably  during  a  twenty-four-hour 
stay. 

St.  Michael  Is  the  shopping-place  of  the  curlo-hunter. 
The  trading  companies  have  large  stocks  of  Indian  wares, 
which  can  generally  be  bought  as  cheaply  In  the  companies' 
stores  as  from  the  natives  themselves.  Among  the  best 
specimens  of  the  Indians'  handicraft  are  walrus-tusks, 
carved  so  as  to  serve  as  cribbage  boards  or  as  other  articles 
and  decorated  with  crude  but  not  uninteresting  designs 
in  black  representing  feats  in  hunting  or  fishing,  various 
Indian  sports,  the  native  In  his  klak  or  the  antics  of  the 
seal.  There  are  miniature  sledges,  perfect  patterns  of  those 
In  actual  use;  miniature  klaks  and  bidarkas,  the  native  seal- 
skin or  walrus-hide  boats;  seal  and  bird  spears,  baskets, 
masks  and  a  great  variety  of  trinkets  carved  in  walrus 
ivory. 

There  are  two  small  Indian  villages  on  the  Island,  and 
the  word  small  Is  necessary  for  accuracy,  because  It  doesn't 
take  more  than  half  a  dozen  little  huts  to  make  an  In- 
dian village,  which  literally  swarms  with  life  w'hen  the 
dogs  begin  to  bark  and  the  inhabitants  show  up  to  see  what 
is  going  on.  The  Indian  village,  as  a  sort  of  appendix  to 
the  white  man's  town,  is  almost  the  Invariable  rule.  The 
Alaska  Indian,  who  knows  little  of  tribal  life  or  relation 
in  these  days,  haunts  the  abode  of  the  white  man,  and  Is 
never  so  happy  as  when  he  is  imitating  as  closely  as  he 
can  the  white  man's  dress  and  manners.  He  Is  a  sociable, 
good-natured  chap,  and  not  only  enjoys  loafing  around  the 


PHASES  OF  LIFE  ON  BERING  SEA      131 

white  man's  town  or  camp,  but  he  has  provided  for  the 
social  side  of  his  make-up  in  various  ways.  The  potlatch 
is  a  social  function,  on  which  the  host  usually  bankrupts 
himself.  It  may  take  years  to  provide  for  such  an  enter- 
tainment, but  it  is  a  "  charity  ball  "  on  a  very  large  scale. 
All  the  guests  must  be  provided  with  gifts — here  prob- 
ably originated  the  idea  of  party  "  favours  " — as  well  as 
gorged  with  food;  and  while  the  host  generally  finds  him- 
self a  pauper  at  the  conclusion  of  the  feast,  has  he  not 
laid  every  one  of  his  guests  under  obligations  to  him  and 
established  a  permanent  claim  on  their  hospitality?  The 
unfaithful  steward  of  the  parable  didn't  fix  himself  bet- 
ter with  his  master's  debtors  when  he  wrote  oft  half  their 
indebtedness  than  the  giver  of  the  potlatch  has  established 
his  future  claim  for  food  and  shelter  on  those  whom  he 
has  feasted  and  loaded  down  with  presents  in  the  form  of 
blankets,  furs,  etc.  It's  a  pretty  expensive  thing  to  be  in- 
vited to  a  potlatch,  but  it  is  not  recorded  that  such  an  in- 
vitation was  ever  refused. 

These  social  functions  are  often  held  In  what  Is  really 
the  village  clubhouse.  With  their  social  instincts  strongly 
developed,  such  a  public  convenience  Is  a  necessity,  and 
Into  the  clubhouse  of  one  of  the  Indian  \illages  at  St. 
Michael  we  were  Invited  to  witness  some  native  dancing. 

This  clubhouse  is  called  the  "  kazhim."  This  one  was 
a  typical  structure  of  the  kind,  built  of  logs  against  the 
hillside  and  partly  under  ground.  Entrance  In  summer  is 
through  a  hole  low  down  on  one  side  through  which  we 
crawled  on  our  hands  and  knees  Into  an  apartment  about 


132         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

20  feet  square.  In  winter  this  entrance  is  closed  and 
admission  is  through  a  hole  in  the  floor  of  a  sort  of  ante- 
chamber along  a  small  tunnel  under  the  wall  of  the  house 
and  up  through  a  hole  in  its  floor.  Ihere  are  no  windows 
or  other  means  of  ventilation  and  no  openings  for  light 
or  air  except  a  hole  in  the  middle  of  the  roof,  through 
which  the  smoke  from  the  fire  built  in  the  middle  of  the 
floor  escapes.  Around  the  wall  is  a  wide  shelf  about  4 
feet  above  the  floor  on  which  the  Indians  sit  or  recline  at 
their  pleasure.  Here  the  men  of  the  village  congregate  in 
winter,  sometimes  bringing  some  of  their  curio  work,  like 
ladies  at  a  sewing  bee,  and — I  draw  the  parallel  no  farther 
— indulging  themselves  chiefly  in  gossip  or  in  the  recital  of 
their  traditions  or  in  rehearsing  exaggerated  accounts  of 
their  individual  prowess  and  skill  in  fishing  and  hunting. 
Games  are  also  played  and  dancing  forms  an  important 
part  of  the  programme.  It  was  this  feature  of  club  life  in 
an  Eskimo  village  that  we  were  permitted  to  witness. 

Besides  our  party  of  nine  and  a  few  from  the  oflSces  of 
the  commercial  companies,  there  were  present  a  dozen  or 
fifteen  natives.  After  repeated  urgings  by  the  headman  and 
considerable  conferring  probably  as  to  what  number  from 
their  extensive  repertory  should  be  produced  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  visitors,  three  men  stepped  out  stripped  to  the 
waist  and  commenced  to  dance  with  that  grace  peculiar 
to  all  Indians.  There  was  music  by  the  band,  of  course, 
and  the  instruments  were  two,  one  consisting  of  a  piece  of 
tanned  sealskin  stretched  tight  over  a  big  hoop,  and  the 
other  of  a  large,  square,  empty  tin  lard  can,  on  both  of 


Ui 


134         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

which  the  performers  beat  rhythmically  with  sticks,  as  they 
uttered  a  doleful  sort  of  chant,  now  in  a  low  and  nasal 
monotone,  and  now  raising  their  voices  into  a  higher  key, 
but  never  stopping  for  an  instant  while  the  performance 
was  on. 

The  dancers  began  posturing,  and  jumping  about  stiff- 
legged,  turning  now  this  way  and  now  that,  raising  their 
arms  and  stiffening  their  muscles  in  attitudes  of  defiance 
and  defence.  Gradually  their  excitement  increased;  the 
drums  beat  louder  and  more  rapidly,  the  bodily  contor- 
tions became  more  vigorous  and  the  facial  grimaces  more 
fierce;  the  dancers  began  to  grunt  and  then  to  shout  in 
their  rough,  guttural  tones,  and  the  excitement  spread  to 
the  other  Indians,  who  presently  became  a  sort  of  chorus, 
joining  in  the  measured  strain.  What  an  absurd  perform- 
ance, indeed !  But  there  is  nothing  ridiculous  or  farcical 
about  all  this — not  to  the  Indian;  he  is  intense  in  his  seri- 
ousness and  the  expression  on  every  face  is  as  near  to  that 
of  enthusiasm  as  it  is  possible  for  the  Indian  to  get.  At 
last  the  dancers  begin  to  show  signs  of  exhaustion;  the 
strenuousness  of  the  performance  gradually  diminishes 
and  finally  it  stops.  The  dancers  gasp  for  breath  and 
stagger  about  while  the  sweat  rolls  from  their  glistening 
bodies.  The  show  is  over,  the  story  of  personal  or  of 
tribal  achievement  and  valour  has  been  told  and  there  is 
nothing  more  to  be  done  except  to  snap  the  camera  as  one 
of  the  dancers  stands  for  an  instant  under  the  opening  in 
the  roof,  and  then  to  seek  the  outer  air,  which  smells  and 
tastes  sweeter  than  it  ever  did  before.  No  admission  fee 


136  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

to  this  unique  performance  is  accepted;  this  is  the  part 
which  the  Indian  vilhigers  play  in  the  entertainment  of 
the  party  from  "  Boston-hind." 

The  revenue-cutter  service  is  a  branch  of  the  public 
service  with  which  those  of  us  who  live  in  the  interior 
have  little  to  do  and  of  which  the  most  of  us  probably 
know  little.  We  may  not  generally  know,  for  instance, 
that  it  is  really  older,  as  an  organisation  of  the  Govern- 
ment, than  the  navy,  and  that  it  was  established  in  1789 
with  the  aid  of  vessels  belonging  to  some  of  the  original 
states  w'hich  they,  as  colonies,  had  employed  for  coast  de- 
fence before  the  federal  Government  was  formed.  Any 
history  of  Alaska  must  deal  more  or  less  with  the  revenue- 
cutter  service,  because  it  has  had  more  to  do  with  the  ad- 
ministration of  affairs  than  any  other  agency  of  the  Gov- 
ernment in  Alaska.  Some  account  of  this  service  belongs 
in  this  story  not  only  on  account  of  the  important  part 
it  bears  in  the  conduct  of  public  business  in  Alaska,  but 
because  one  of  the  revenue  ships  w^as  the  home  of  the  sen- 
atorial party  for  a  period  of  twenty-eight  days.  Before 
leaving  home  Senator  Dillingham  had  arranged  with  the 
treasury  department  to  have  the  revenue  cutter  McCulloch 
meet  the  senatorial  party  at  St.  Michael  and  convey  us 
thence  on  the  remainder  of  our  journey  back  to  Seattle. 
This  vessel  w^as  found  waiting  for  us  at  St.  Michael  when 
we  arrived. 

Captain  W.  C.  Coulson  received  us  on  board  Tuesday 
evening,  July  28,  just  a  month  after  we  left  Seattle  and 
2,988  miles  from  that  sound  port  by  way  of  the  inside 


PHASES  OF  LIFE  ON  BERING  SEA      137 

passage   to  Skagway,   the   White   Pass   raih-oad   and   the 
Yukon  River. 

The  McCulloch,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  Admiral 
Dewey's  dispatch  boat  at  Manila  and  carried  from  Manila 


Captain  Coulson 

to  Hongkong  the  first  account  of  the  brilliant  engage- 
ment in  Manila  Bay,  May  i,  1898.  It  was  also  the  Hrst 
of  the  Asiatic  squadron  to  become  a  target  for  the  fire 
of  the  Spanish  guns.  It  was  during  the  night  of  April  30, 
when  Admiral  Dewey  was  leading  his  fleet  under  cover 
of  darkness  past  Corregidor  Island  that  the  smoke-stack 
of  the  McCulloch,  which  was  last  in  the  line,  suddenly  be- 
gan to  burn  out  and  belch  forth  flames  like  an  iron  furnace. 


138  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

The  naming  chimney  at  once  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  Spanish  garrison  in  the  Corregidor  fortress  and  the 
first  shot  of  the  war  of  the  Phihppines  was  fired  at  that 
shining  mark  with  the  result  that  usually  followed  Spanish 
marksmanship. 

The  McCulloch  was  built  in  1897,  just  in  time  to  get 
into  business  at  Manila,  where  it  was  attached  to  the 
Asiatic  squadron,  according  to  the  custom  which  makes 
the  revenue  cutters  a  part  of  the  naval  service  in  time  of 
war.  This  vessel  is  a  handsome  craft,  219  feet  long, 
having  a  tonnage  of  869,  and  a  record  on  her  trial  test  of 
17  1-2  knots,  or  20  miles,  an  hour.  She  is  of  composite 
construction,  which  means  that  her  hull  to  the  water-line 
is  built  of  wood  and  above  of  steel.  These  revenue  cut- 
ters are  often  obliged  to  go  on  long  cruises  and  experi- 
ence shows  that  wooden  bottoms  do  not  become  so  foul 
as  steel  bottoms. 

Alexander  Hamilton  was  the  founder  of  the  revenue- 
cutter  service.  He  obtained  authority  first  in  1789  to 
employ  persons  to  serve  in  boats  in  harbours  and  along 
shore  to  aid  in  collecting  the  revenue.  He  appreciated 
also  that  only  persons  of  the  most  trustworthy  character 
were  desirable  for  this  service,  otherwise  they  "  would 
probably  serve  to  screen  fraud  rather  than  to  detect  it." 
Great  pains  was  therefore  taken  in  the  enlistment  of 
officers  and  men,  and  the  high  standard  then  recognised 
as  necessary  has  been  maintained  ev^er  since. 

The  duties  imposed  upon  this  arm  of  the  service  are  to 
aid  in  the  enforcement  of  the  customs  rev^enue  laws,  render 


PHASES  OF  LIFE  ON  BERING  SEA      139 

assistance  to  vessels  in  distress,  enforce  quarantine  regula- 
tions, compel  observance  of  the  neutrality  laws  and  the 
laws  governing  merchant  vessels,  protect  wrecked  prop- 
erty, prevent  depredations  on  Government  timber  lands, 
guard  the  seal  and  other  fisheries,  prevent  the  sale  of 
arms  and  liquors  to  Indians,  aid  in  the  establishment  and 
maintenance  of  life-saving  stations,  supervise  the  light- 
house service,  aid  in  the  coast  survey,  assist  in  scientific 
exploration  and  in  general  stand  in  readiness  to  do  any- 
thing that  may  be  required  to  promote  the  safety  of  life 
and  property  along  our  ocean  fronts  as  well  as  on  the 
Great  Lakes.  The  revenue  cutters  on  the  Pacific  coast 
are  equipped  with  several  guns.  The  McCulloch  has  two 
rapid-fire  guns  and  also  two  magazine  guns  that  were 
once  in  service  on  the  Reina  Cristina,  the  Spanish  flagship 
at  Manila. 

In  time  of  war  the  officers  and  vessels  of  the  revenue- 
cutter  service,  which  in  peace  are  under  the  direction  of  the 
treasury  or  revenue  department  of  the  Government,  are 
placed  under  the  command  of  the  navy  department,  and  in 
all  our  wars,  both  against  foreign  foes  and  during  the  great 
rebellion,  they  have  rendered  valiant  service  to  the  country. 
The  Harriet  Lane,  a  revenue  cutter,  was  attached  to  the 
Fort  Sumter  relief  expedition  in  1861,  and  the  first  shot 
of  the  rebellion  fired  from  a  loyal  ship  was  discharged 
from  her  deck.  It  was  when  her  commander  had  treacher- 
ously surrendered  the  McClelland  to  the  rebels,  and 
Ritchie,  a  subordinate  officer,  had  torn  down  the  Con- 
federate flag,  run  up  again  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  and  had 


140         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

succeeded  in  delix  eriiig  the  ship  to  General  Butler  at  New 
Orleans,  that  Cieneral  Dix  delivered  that  famous  order: 
"  If  any  nian  attempts  to  haul  down  the  American  flag, 
shoot  him  on  the  spot." 

The  history  of  the  service  is  full  of  deeds  of  heroism 
performed  not  alone  under  the  inspiration  of  war,  but  at 
times  when  there  was  only  the  incentixe  of  a  sense  of  duty. 
The  courage  which  braves  the  dangers  of  the  ice  fields  of 
Bering  Sea  and  the  Arctic  Ocean,  which  battles  with  dark- 
ness and  storm  in  the  life-saving  service,  the  devotion  to 
duty  which  sends  officers  and  men  into  plague-infested 
ports  and  keeps  them  there  to  enforce  quarantine  and 
carry  aid  and  comfort  where  pestilence  stalks,  the  superb 
and  unfaltering  heroism  which  sent  a  Jarvis  and  a  Call 
and  a  Bertholf  i,8oo  miles  afoot  across  the  ice  fields  of 
Alaska  in  midwinter  at  the  constant  and  imminent  risk 
of  their  own  lives  that  they  might  save  the  lives  of  the 
imprisoned  whalers  at  Point  Barrow — these  things  are 
seldom  mentioned  and  rarely  if  ever  heard  of  by  the  gen- 
eral public,  but  they  make  up  a  large  part  of  the  life  work 
of  our  revenue-cutter  service  and  particularly  that  part  of 
it  which  patrols  our  North  Pacific  coast  line. 

It  is  III  miles  from  St.  Michael  across  Norton  Sound 
to  Nome,  where  we  arrive  in  rough  weather  on  the  morn- 
ing of  July  29.  It  was  not  so  rough  we  couldn't  land,  but 
rough  enough  to  involve  some  danger  and  afford  the 
senatorial  committee  a  practical  demonstration  of  the 
need  of  better  landing  facilities.  The  people  of  Nome 
seemed,  somehow,   not  to   regret  very  cordially  that  we 


CO 


142  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

had  some  adventures  in  getting  ashore.  Nome,  it  will  be 
remembered,  has  no  harbour.  It  stands  on  the  open  sea, 
exposed  to  the  storms  that  sweep  northward  across  Bering 
Sea  over  an  unbroken  stretch  of  over  700  miles.  The 
location  of  the  town  was  determined  not  by  any  regard 
for  natural  landing  facilities,  but  by  the  discovery  of  the 
gold-bearing  beach  sands.  Bering  Sea  is  shoal  and  the 
slope  of  the  beach  very  gradual;  it  is  impossible  for 
seagoing  ships  to  go  within  less  than  a  mile  of  land. 
Passengers  and  freight  must  be  taken  off  on  lighters  and 
it  often  happens  that  ships  cannot  unload  either  passen- 
gers or  freight  or  even  the  mails  for  several  days  after 
arrival.  The  only  shelter  on  that  bleak  and  dangerous 
coast  is  that  afforded  by  a  small  island  ten  or  fifteen  miles 
away,  behind  which  vessels  are  sometimes  obliged  to  re- 
treat to  avoid  dragging  their  anchors  and  being  dashed  to 
pieces  on  shore.  And  our  experiences  with  the  risks  and 
delays  incident  to  landing  and  embarking  were  not  con- 
fined to  the  difficulties  we  encountered  on  arrival.  We 
were  obliged  to  wait  thirty-six  hours  after  the  intended 
date  of  departure  till  the  sea  had  quieted  down  so  that  we 
might  venture  out  to  our  ship,  and  were  observant  during 
that  time  of  the  arrival  of  two  ships  outside,  neither  of 
which  could  land  a  single  man  till  the  storm  subsided. 
One  of  them,  a  mail  ship  from  St.  Michael,  was  forced  to 
carry  passengers  and  mail  back  again — mail  that  we  were 
particularly  anxious  to  receive  as  it  was  supposed  to  con- 
tain letters  for  our  party,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  did, 
as  we  afterwards  learned. 


144         ALASKA  AND    11 TF   KLONDIKE 

The  first  glimpse  of  Nome,  obtained  by  the  aid  of  our 
field-glasses,  showed  a  low,  treeless  coast,  and  along  the 
water's  edge  for  a  mile  or  more  stretched  a  thin  line  of 
frame  buildings,  some  two  stories  and  a  few  more  preten- 
tious in  height,  crowded  so  close  to  the  water's  edge  as  to 
suggest  danger  from  the  waves. 

Our  vessel  came  to  anchor  about  9  o'clock,  and  a  small 
steam  tug  was  presently  observed  coming  to  meet  us,  while 
further  in  we  presently  discovered  a  dory  mounting  one 
wave  after  another  and  bringing  the  quarantine  officer. 
It  was  so  rough  that  the  tug  could  not  come  alongside,  but 
stood  oft  and  sent  a  dory  to  conv^ey  us  over  to  it.  The 
second  load  consisteci  of  Senators  Nelson,  Dillingham  and 
Burnham  and  the  transfer  from  the  dory  to  the  tug  was 
attended  with  so  much  difficulty,  and  the  tug  itself  seemed 
such  an  unsafe  dependence  as  it  rolled  and  tossed  about, 
that  the  senators  elected  to  stay  in  the  dory  and  be  towed 
ashore.  That  soon  proved  to  be  impracticable  and  ex- 
tremely dangerous;  the  line  was  cast  off  by  the  oarsmen 
In  the  dory  and  the  three  senators  were  rowed  ashore, 
where  they  arrived  in  safety,  but  not  without  a  wetting  in 
the  surf.  Those  of  us  on  the  tug  were  transferred  just  out- 
side the  breakers  to  a  stout,  flat-bottomed  barge,  which  was 
hauled  in  by  a  cable  from  shore  till  it  grounded  on  the 
beach  sands.  We  were  then  picked  up  from  the  deck  of 
the  barge  in  a  cage  let  down  from  a  long,  projecting 
beam  and  carried  up  over  the  surf  to  a  high  platform  on 
land. 

And  that  is  the  w^ay  passengers  and  freight  are  unloaded 


146         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

and  loaded  at  Nome  the  greater  part  of  the  time.  A  small 
stream,  the  Snake  River,  comes  down  from  the  hills,  flows 
through  the  west  end  of  the  town,  turns  along  the  land  side 
of  a  sandspit  for  half  a  mile  and  then  cuts  through  into 
the  sea.  The  people  of  Nome  believe  that  a  jetty  built  out 
from  the  mouth  of  this  stream  and  the  dredging  out  of  a 
sandbar  that  lies  across  the  entrance  would  make  it  prac- 
ticable for  small  vessels  and  lighters  to  pass  through  to  a 
safe  harbour  inside  the  sandspit,  and  the  senatorial  com- 
mittee were  urged  to  procure  an  appropriation  of  $150,000 
for  such  an  improvement.  Lighterage  costs  from  $3.50 
to  $5  a  ton  for  ordinary  merchandise  and  more  for  heavy 
machinery,  and  it  was  contended  that  on  the  50,000  to 
60,000  tons  of  freight  handled  there  every  year  the  cost 
would  be  reduced  enough  to  pay  for  the  improvement  in 
two  years. 

About  the  first  of  June  a  fleet  of  merchant  vessels 
sails  from  Seattle  for  Nome.  It  is  all  open  sea  till  they 
get  through  the  Aleutian  chain  at  Unimak  pass  and  for 
some  distance  northward  in  Bering  Sea,  but  sooner  or 
later  they  encounter  the  ice  fields.  The  ice  is  breaking  up 
and  floating  down  from  the  north,  and  there  is  great  strife 
to  see  which  ship  will  force  its  way  through  the  ice  and 
land  its  passengers  and  freight  and  mail  at  Nome  first. 
The  voyage  from  Seattle  to  Nome  is  made  ordinarily  in 
six  or  seven  days,  but  the  race  is  not  always  to  the  swift 
or  the  first  in  starting,  for,  at  the  opening  of  navigation, 
it  sometimes  happens  that  the  vessel  which  for  a  time 
seems  to  lead  in  the  race  gets  caught  in  an  Ice-pack  and  is 


w 


6 

o 


I4S 


ALASKA   AM)    I  111     Kl  <  )\niKK 


tortcdto  wait  for  it  to  break  while  it  sees  its  rivals  move  on 
throuixii  open  water  to  their  tlestiiiation.    I  he  ice  breaks 

up  in  Berinu;  Sea  in  front 
ot  Nome  about  June  i  ^  as 
a  rule  and  closes  that  port, 
it  It  may  be  callcil  a  port, 
about  C)ctober  in.  The 
<ipen  season  at  Nome  is 
o\er  then  aiul  from  that 
time  till  the  i  ^th  or  20th 
ot  June  that  great  camp 
and  all  the  Seward  Penin- 
sula are  absolutely  cut  oli 
from  the  outside  world  ex- 
cept through  a  monthly 
letter  mail  and  the  re- 
centK  installed  Cioxern- 
ment  telegraph  service. 

I  his  tact  has  ileveloped 
a  great  ileal  ol  interest 
there  in  the  powerful  ice- 
breaking  boats  built  by  the 
Russian  Government  tor 
the  purpose  ot  keeping 
open  the  port  ot  Cronstadt 
on  the  Baltic  Sea.    In  kSqS 

and    it    is    authoritatl\elv    stated    has    ploughed    its    way 
through   solid   ice    tmirteen    teet    thick    tor   a   distance   ot 


The  Senate  '*  (Joes  in  the  .Air  " 
the  largest  of  these  vessels,  the  Frmak,  was  put  in  service 


PHASES  OF  LIFE  OX  BERING  SEA      149 

200  miles.  It  is  3^*;  teet  lont;,  its  displacement  is  S.ooo 
tons  and  it  carries  3,000  tons  of  coal;  its  engines  have 
10,000  horsepower,  and  it  is  so  constructed  that  when  it 
fails  to  plough  through  the  ice  i-t  literally  climbs  up  on  the 
edge  ot  it  and  breaks  it  down  by  its  enormous  weigiit.  It 
is  credited  with  having  made  thirty  miles  in  eight  hours 
through  very  heavy  ice.  Nome  is  about  live  degrees  fur- 
ther north  than  Cronstadt,  but  it  is  believed  that  the  ice 
field  in  Bering  Sea  could  be  traNcrsed  as  successtully  in 
winter  by  such  a  vessel  as  the  Baltic,  and  they  would  like 
to  see  our  Government  undertake  it.  The  proposition  is 
certainly  an  interesting  one.  and  as  Alaska  is  developed 
and  becomes  more  populous  it  may  seem  to  our  Govern- 
ment to  be  a  desirable  thing  to  do.  It  is  not  improbable, 
however,  that  improved  facilities  of  transportation  and 
communication  by  land  will  be  found  to  be  more  practical 
and  more  economical. 


VII 

NOME  AND  THE  GOLD  FIELDS  OF  THE 
SEWARD  PENINSULA 

TAKE  a  low,  sandy  beach,  one  without  a  tree 
within  fifty  miles;  show  a  white  line  where  the 
wav'es  break  into  foam  along  the  shore;  stretch 
along  the  water's  edge  for  a  mile  or  more  a  double  row 
of  frame  buildings,  most  of  them  two  stories  high  and 
facing  each  other;  cover  the  street  between  with  boards 
laid  on  the  sand;  don't  be  very  particular  about  making  the 
street  lines  straight  nor  insist  that  the  street  shall  have 
uniform  width;  let  the  elevation  and  the  width  of  the 
sidewalks  be  determined  by  chance,  it  produces  more 
variety  and  claims  closer  attention  from  the  pedestrian; 
fill  the  lower  floors  of  the  buildings  along  this  street  with 
business  undertakings  of  various  kinds,  and  the  upper 
floors  reserve  for  living  purposes;  throw  in  a  liberal  por- 
tion of  places  devoted  to  the  gratification  of  highly 
developed  thirsts;  fill  the  air  at  frequent  intervals  with 
the  sounds  of  rag-time  music;  gather  on  the  sidewalk  and 
in  the  narrow  street  groups  of  men  who  seem  to  have  noth- 
ing in  particular  to  do  and  are  doing  it;  then  go  back  from 
the  first  street  and  locate  a  church  or  two,  a  schoolhouse, 
a  federal  courthouse  and  custom-house,  sprinkle  around 
a  few  small  buildings  for  residence  purposes;  fill  the  air 

.  150 


NOME  AND  THE  GOLD  FIELDS 


151 


with  a  cold  drizzle,  and  you  may  have  the  materials  out 
of  which  were  obtained  my  first  impressions  of  Nome, 
on  the  morning  of  July  29. 

Nome  is  on  the  south  shore  of  the  Seward  Peninsula, 
that  portion  of  Alaska  which  reaches  farthest  out  toward 


Main  Street  in  Nome 

Siberia,  and  Is  only  120  miles  from  Cape  Prince  of  Wales, 
the  extreme  point  on  the  Alaskan  coast  between  which  and 
the  Siberian  shore  flows  Bering  Strait.  The  name  Bering 
Strait  recalls  those  impressions  we  used  to  get  from  our 
school  geographies.  I  don't  know  what  your  youthful  am- 
bitions were,  but  Bering  Sea  and  all  that  belongs  to  it  were 
associated  in  my  mind  with   remoteness   more   unattain- 


152         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

able  than  the  hii^hhiiuls  ol  I  hihet  or  the  jungles  of  Africa. 
But  that  was  long  before  the  magnet  of  gold  began  to 
draw  thousands  across  that  bleak  and  stormy  water,  be- 
fore the  soldiers  of  fortune  began  to  storm  the  icy  palisades 
of  the  north,  and  sweep  through  the  watery  pass  into  the 
Arctic  Ocean  and  explore  its  inhospitable  shores,  not  for 
fame  or  knowledge,  but  for  the  precious  yellow  metal. 

Nome  is  something  of  a  summer  resort,  judging  not  by 
its  attractions  for  pleasure-seekers,  but  solely  by  the  fluc- 
tuations in  population.  About  2,500  people  spend  the  win- 
ter there  every  year  while  the  summer  arrivals  approxi- 
mate 6,000  annually.  Not  all  of  them,  of  course,  remain 
in  Nome  any  considerable  length  of  time,  but  this  greatest 
and  most  wonderful  and  most  interesting  of  Alaskan  cities 
is  the  gateway  through  which  arrive  and  depart  the  thou- 
sands who  are  scattered  over  the  richest  gold  field  of  equal 
area  on  the  American  continent,  and  probably  the  richest 
in  the  world,  the  Seward  Peninsula. 

I  haA-e  spoken  in  a  previous  chapter  of  its  deplorable 
lack  of  harbour  facilities  and  protection  for  shipping,  and 
if  there  were  any  other  point  on  the  south  side  of  this  pen- 
insula any  better  favoured  in  this  particular  it  is  probable 
that  it  would  sooner  or  later,  and  not  much  later,  take  the 
place  Nome  now  occupies  with  respect  to  the  Alaskan 
trade.  It  was  the  discovery  of  gold  in  the  beach  sands  and 
on  the  creeks  near  by  which  determined  the  location  of 
this  city;  there  was  no  other  influence  at  work  in  it.  While 
the  boom  is  over  and  the  multitudes  attracted  by  the  first 
discoveries  and  the  chance  to  stand  on  the  beach  and  wash 


ON 
ON 


154         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

out  $100  to  $300  a  clay  ha\e  melted  away,  thousands  of 
tons  of  nierchandise  are  received  here  every  week,  supply- 
ing the  12,500  to  15,000  people  who  are  scattered  over 
the  peninsula;  and  of  the  $6,000,000  to  $7,500,000  of 
gold  taken  out  of  Alaska  annually,  two-thirds  goes  out  of 
Nome. 

The  reception  accorded  the  senatorial  party  at  Nome 
was  hospitality  itself.  This  was  the  first  stopping  place 
since  leaving  Dawson,  where  there  were  any  considerable 
number  of  ladies.  Here  they  had  assumed  the  responsi- 
bility for  a  formal  reception  and  ball  the  first  night  after 
our  arrival.  This  very  "  swell  "  event  took  place  in  the 
Arctic  Brotherhood  hall,  which  was  tastefully  decorated 
for  the  occasion.  This  hall  is  the  social  centre  of  Nome 
and  the  members  of  the  brotherhood  and  their  wives  con- 
stitute the  "  400."  Their  hall  was  formerly  a  theatre,  and, 
slightly  remodelled,  it  provides  splendid  accommodations 
for  every  sort  of  social  function.  It  is  a  kind  of  club- 
house and  here  the  best  element  of  Nome  socially  strug- 
gles almost  nightly  through  the  long  v/inter  against 
thoughts  of  home  and  of  the  leagues  of  impassable  ice 
and  snow  which  lie  between  them  and  the  outside  world. 
Dancing  and  cards  avail  when  more  serious  occupations 
fail  to  beguile  the  lonesome  hours.  For  it  should  be  under- 
stood that  there  is  very  little  to  do  in  Nome  in  winter. 
The  mining  has  stopped  almost  entirely,  the  ships  come 
no  more,  half  the  people  have  gone  "outside";  the  rest 
eat  and  sleep  and  amuse  themselves  and  wait  for  summer 
to  come  again. 


H 


156         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

Ihis  is  the  situation  Iroiii  Noxciiibcr  to  June.  Add  to 
this  the  fact  that  lor  a  long  time  in  winter  the  sun  ahnost 
tails  to  come  up,  rises  but  a  short  distance  above  the  ice 
packs  of  the  Bering  Sea  and  four  hours  later  sinks  out  of 
sight  again.  The  gloom  of  the  long  Arctic  night  con- 
tributes materially  to  the  depression  which  at  last  over- 
comes the  winter  resident  in  spite  of  his  effort  to  resist  it. 
All  these  things,  together  with  the  close  association  of  the 
inhabitants  of  this  "  desert  island,"  produce  a  peculiar 
result.  As  one  lady  expressed  it:  "I  get  tired  of  my  best 
friends,  and  I  know  that  they  get  tired  of  me  because  they 
act  like  it.  From  cordial  friendship  and  real  enjoyment  of 
each  other  at  the  beginning  of  the  '  shut  in  '  period,  we 
come  to  tolerate  and  finally  to  feel  a  positive  aversion  for 
each  other,  till  along  in  the  spring  when  the  days  lengthen 
and  the  sun  comes  back  and  w^e  can  get  outdoors,  and  be- 
gin to  count  the  wrecks  and  then  the  days  till  the  first  ship 
may  be  expected — then  we  get  over  it  and  we  are  friends 
again." 

The  Kegoayah  Kozga,  the  woman's  club  of  Nome,  were 
hostesses  at  the  ball.  If  you  think  this  was  a  blue-flannel- 
shirt,  pants-in-your-boots,  cartridge-belt  and  knife-sheath 
affair,  that  shows  how  mistaken  you  are  about  Nome. 
There  were  a  few  men  present  who  were  not  In  evening 
dress,  but  very  few,  while  the  ladies  had  had  time  since 
the  arrival  of  the  first  boats  from  the  States,  those  of  them 
who  were  In  Nome  all  winter,  to  prepare  the  new 
dresses  they  had  planned  for  this  special  event.  It  was  a 
brilliant  occasion  and  w'as  certainly  worth  what  It  cost  In 


NOME  AND  THE  GOLD  FIELDS        157 

the  impression  it  gave  to  the  senators  of  the  kind  of  men 
and  women  there  are  in  farthest  Alaska. 

For  the  banquet  the  next  evening  at  the  same  place  the 
hall  was  entirely  redecorated.  One  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  of  the  leading  men  sat  down  with  the  senatorial  party 
and  after  a  dinner  served  in  first-class  style  the  requests 
and  suggestions  prepared  by  the  general  committee  of 
citizens,  as  to  legislation  by  Congress,  were  formally  pre- 
sented. The  extremely  favourable  impressions  created  the 
previous  evening  were  strengthened  by  this  well-con- 
ducted and  creditable  affair.  It  Is  doubtful  if  anything  ob- 
served or  experienced  during  the  entire  trip  of  the  senato- 
rial party  did  more  to  promote  the  interests  of  Alaska  than 
these  social  events  at  Nome,  so  well  calculated  to  create 
the  most  favourable  impressions  with  regard  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  people  who  are  developing  the  resources  of 
the  great  country,  of  whose  natural  wealth  the  general 
public  has  such  inadequate  knowledge. 

So  much  has  been  written  about  the  wonderful  results 
of  washing  the  beach  sands  at  Nome  for  gold  and  the 
beach  sands  proved  to  be  so  rich  that  the  impression  has 
prevailed  in  some  quarters  that  not  only  has  this  been  the 
source  of  the  greater  part  of  the  gold  output  of  the  Nome 
district,  but  the  Important  discoveries  in  this  district  arc 
supposed  to  ha\e  been  made  first  on  the  beach.  This  is  not 
quite  true,  howcxcr.  I  he  first  tliscovery  of  gold  in  the 
beach  sands  was  made  at  Sinook,  a  point  about  l\\eiit\- 
five  miles  west  of  Nome.  This  led  to  some  prosjiecting  in 
the  vicinity  of  Nome,  but  the  prospectors  were  not  then 


158         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

fortunate  in  finding  in  the  beach  sand  paying  quantities 
of  gold,  and  they  proceeded  inland,  where  the  first  im- 
portant discoveries  were  made  on  Anvil  Creek  and  on 
Snow  and  Glacier  gulches.  H.  L.  Blake  claims  the  credit 
for  having  made  the  original  discovery.  Some  prospect- 
ing had  been  done  in  1896  and  1897  in  the  region  of 
Golofnin  Bay  and  on  the  streams  flowing  into  it.  Word 
was  brought  there,  to  a  camp  near  the  Swedish  Lutheran 
mission,  of  discoveries  of  gold  in  the  beach  sands  at 
Sinook.  Blake  made  up  a  party,  including  Hultberg,  the 
Swedish  missionary,  to  investigate  the  Sinook  rumours. 
They  found  nothing  of  importance  there,  and  soon  re- 
turned to  the  creeks  above  Nome.  On  the  26th  and  27th 
of  July,  1898,  they  prospected  in  that  vicinity  but  staked 
no  claims. 

A  little  later  the  same  season  Erick  C.  Lindblom,  John 
Brinterson  and  Jafet  Linderberg  went  to  Anvil  Creek, 
where  they  staked  out  claims.  They  also  staked  on  Snow 
and  Glacier  gulches.  These  men  were  the  first  to  discover 
a  sufl'icient  quantity  of  gold  in  the  Nome  district  to  induce 
them  to  stake  a  claim,  and  are  probably  entitled  to  be 
regarded  as  the  real  discoverers.  Some  of  the  claims  they 
then  staked  proved  to  be  very  valuable,  and  were  ulti- 
mately the  properties  over  which  occurred  that  famous 
litigation  which  resulted  in  the  removal  of  a  judge  of  the 
United  States  district  court  and  the  marshal  of  the  district 
from  their  official  positions. 

The  bitter  animosities  w^hich  were  developed  between 
individuals  and  factions  in  Nome  at  that  time  were  not 


NOME  AND  THE  GOLD  FIELDS        159 

exposed  to  the  visiting  senators,  but  they  can  be  dug  up 
very  easily  there  at  any  time  if  one  manifests  the  slightest 
interest  in  tales  of  woe. 

The  second  day  in  the  Nome  district  was  spent  out  on- 
the  creeks  among  the  miners  and  prospectors.  The  Seward 
Peninsula  is  just  about  as  well  equipped  with  good  wagon 
roads  as  is  all  the  rest  of  Alaska;  that  is  to  say,  it  hasn't 
any.  Nome,  however,  has  a  railroad.  It  is  nine  miles  long 
and  "  all  under  one  management."  It  is  called  the  Wild 
Goose  railroad.  A  narrow-gauge  track  laid  over  the  tun- 
dra winds  around  among  the  hills  and  along  the  gulches, 
over  which  runs  a  light  train  made  up  of  two  side-gear 
locomotives  adapted  to  steep  grades,  and  covered  so  that 
they  look  like  box  cars,  but  capable  of  pulling  a  heavy 
load.  The  passenger  "  coaches  "  are  flat  cars,  some  with 
roof  and  some  without;  but  this  little  railroad  is  so  much 
of  an  improvement  over  none  at  all  that  without  it  many 
of  the  claims  within  reach  of  it  could  not  be  profitably 
worked  on  account  of  the  cost  of  transportation  of  supplies 
and  machinery. 

In  a  placer  mining  country  a  sufficient  water  supply  is 
quite  as  essential  to  success  as  the  gold  itself,  and  at  Nome 
two  companies  are  engaged  in  building  ditches  and  dis- 
tributing water  for  use,  not  only  on  their  own  properties, 
but  for  sale  to  other  mine  owners.  A  pumping  plant  be- 
longing to  C.  D.  Lane's  company  stands  near  the  railroad 
track  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  Nome,  from  which 
point  it  is  pumping  water  up  into  the  mines  eight  or  nine 
miles  away  and  800  feet  higher  up  on  Anvil  Creek  and 


i6o         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

Snow  and  (ilacicr  u;ulches.  Another  company  on  the  other 
side  of  An\il  Mountain,  the  Campion  company,  is  also 
constructing  an  immense  system  of  ditches  and  pro\'iding 
for  the  distribution  of  water  on  a  large  scale.  During  the 
summer  of  1904  the  Wild  Goose  mining  company  paid 
$1,000,000  for  a  controlling  interest  in  the  sixty  miles 
of  ditches  and  pipes  of  the  Miocene  Canal  company,  and 
announced  a  reduction  in  water  rates  to  other  mines  be- 
sides their  own.  Such  improvements  as  this  not  only  sug- 
gest confidence  in  the  permanency  of  the  gold  deposit,  but 
they  are  establishing  the  only  possible  conditions  under 
w'hich  the  immense  wealth  of  that  rich,  gold-bearing  sec- 
tion may  be  successfully  developed. 

Near  the  end  of  the  railroad  the  whole  company  left 
the  train  and  mounted  horses.  Among  the  mines  visited 
was  Discovery,  on  Anvil  Creek,  and  in  our  company  was 
Jafet  Linderberg,  one  of  the  discoverers  and  locators  of 
this  claim.  Linderberg  is  now  a  millionaire.  When  he 
started  on  the  trip  which  led  to  this  great  discovery  he  was 
an  employe  of  the  Government  at  one  of  the  reindeer 
stations,  from  which  service  he  obtained  a  release  in  order 
that  he  might  engage  in  prospecting.  He  is  a  fine-looking, 
gentlemanly-appearing  young  fellow,  exceedingly  diffident, 
but  a  brief  conversation  with  him  develops  the  fact  that 
he  is  a  man  of  intelligence  and  capacity,  a  fact  which 
helps  explain  his  election  to  the  presidency  of  the  Pioneer 
Mining  company,  a  strong  corporation  which  owns  Dis- 
covery and  other  valuable  claims  on  Anvil  and  nearby 
creeks.  Another  interesting  member  of  our  company  was 


NOME  AND  THE  GOLD  FIELDS        i6i 

Mr.  Linderberg's  bride,  who  was  spending  her  honey- 
moon on  the  scene  of  her  husband's  very  fortunate  opera- 
tions. 

A  few  days  before  our  arrival  no  little  excitement  had 
been  created  in  Nome,  where  thrills  of  this  kind  make 


Jafet  Linderberg  and  Party 

life  endurable,  by  the  discovery  of  a  pocket  on  Nikkala 
gulch,  where  "  Caribou  Bill,"  whose  name  isn't  Bill  at  all, 
but  I  homas  Dettern,  one  of  those  unscientific,  unlettered, 
lucky  chaps,  had  struck  a  pocket  in  his  mine  which  pro- 
duced $1,285  l^i'Of^T  twelve  pans  in  a  yard  of  gravel;  this 
was  at  the  rate  of  $10,700  to  the  cubic  yard,  ami  naturally 
produced  a  sensation  while  it  lasted,    f  his  property  was  on 


i62         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

the  route  of  the  day's  travel  and  not  far  from  the  "  Hot 
Air  "  mine,  which  was  just  now  being  successfully  w^ashed 
out  by  means  of  a  hydraulic  giant.  Other  mines  were 
visited  on  Snow  Gulch  and  Dexter  Creek,  illustrating  the 
different  methods  of  handling  the  gravel,  some  by  hy- 
draulic lifts  and  others  by  simply  shovelling  the  gravel 
from  the  bedrock  into  the  sluice  boxes. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  propositions,  as  the  miners 
say,  was  the  Snow  Flake  mine,  where  a  shaft  had  been 
sunk  to  a  depth  of  130  feet  to  a  bed  of  pay  gravel.  This 
is  supposed  to  be  a  deposit  similar  to  that  found  on  bed- 
rock in  the  gulches  and  along  the  streams,  but,  by  a  change 
in  the  face  of  nature,  to  have  been  covered  with  earth 
to  this  depth.  The  gravel  is  taken  out  of  this  underground 
deposit  and  sluiced  out,  just  as  if  scooped  from  the  surface 
of  the  ground  as  in  other  mining  operations  there.  The 
work  of  taking  out  the  ore  can  be  carried  on  all  winter, 
but  the  sluicing  must  wait,  of  course,  for  summer  weather. 

An  interesting  fact  developed  here  was  the  depth  of  the 
frost  line.  As  has  been  heretofore  stated,  perpetual  ice 
is  found  practically  all  over  Alaska  at  a  depth  of  two  or 
three  feet.  That  is  to  say,  the  surface  thaws  only  about 
that  much  during  the  summer.  The  close  covering  of  grass 
and  moss  protects  the  surface  of  the  ground  so  thoroughly 
from  the  rays  of  the  sun  that  the  frost  is  not  disturbed  at  a 
greater  depth.  The  question  naturally  arose :  How  deep 
is  the  frost  line?  I  asked  this  question  a  number  of  times 
on  the  trip  through  Alaska,  but  no  one  seemed  to  have 
found  the  limit  of  ice.   Here,  however,  I  was  told  that  the 


1 64         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

ground  was  frozen  solidly  for  a  depth  of  ninety-five  feet, 
and  a  drill  working  in  another  shaft  nearby  afforded 
partial  confirmation  of  this  statement,  as  it  was  still  chip- 
ping the  ice  at  an  apparent  depth  of  sixty  feet. 

An  excellent  lunch  was  served  to  the  entire  party  of 
twenty-five  or  thirty  at  the  messhouse  of  the  Wild  Goose 
company  and  we  were  then  invited  to  witness  a  clean-up 
on  "  No.  8  Above,"  on  Anvil  Creek,  which  means  the 
eighth  claim  above  the  original  discovery  claim.  This 
claim  belongs  to  Mr.  Linderberg's  company,  but  was 
being  worked  on  a  "  lay,"  which  is  the  miners'  term  for 
a  percentage  lease,  by  the  Wild  Goose  company.  The 
sluice  box  shown  in  the  accompanying  illustration  had  been 
running  two  days  and  when  the  riffles  had  been  taken  up 
and  the  gold  in  the  bottom  literally  shovelled  up,  it  was 
found  that  there  was  more  than  a  miner's  pailful,  the  value 
of  which  was  nearly  $8,000.  And  beautiful  stuff  it  was, 
too.  The  Nome  gold  is  brighter  and  prettier  than  that 
which  is  found  in  the  Klondike  and  assays  $2  or  so  more  to 
the  ounce — about  $15  to  $17  in  the  one  case  and  $16  to 
$19  in  the  other.  The  greater  part  of  it  is  in  fine  particles 
about  the  size  of  the  grains  of  rock  salt,  or  smaller,  but  a 
great  many  nuggets  worth  from  $2  to  $7  were  found  in 
this  clean-up.  I  saw  one  piece  that  day  said  to  be  worth 
$300,  and  have  learned  that  after  we  left  there  a  nugget 
was  taken  from  one  of  these  Anvil  Creek  bench  claims 
which  weighed  out  $3,285.90. 

Late  in  the  season  of  1904  a  sensational  discovery  was 
made  on  Little  Creek,  about  three  miles  from  Nome  and 


NOME  AND  THE  GOLD  FIELDS        165 

between  the  city  and  the  centre  of  operations  on  Anv^il 
Creek.  Pans  of  gravel  yielded  as  high  as  $135  and  one 
pan  is  said  to  have  contained  ten  ounces  of  gold  or  $170. 
The  deposit  is  found  at  a  depth  of  forty-two  feet  and 


Sluice  Boxes  on  Anvil  Creek 

promises  to  rival  the  original  discovery  on  Anvil  Creek, 
of  which  ore  streak  it  is  probably  a  continuation.  I'he 
lucky  discoverer  is  J.  C.  Brown,  a  pioneer  on  the  peninsula. 
Did  I  get  the  fever?  No,  not  exactly,  but  when  you  see 
the  yellow  metal  gathered  up  by  the  panful  and  see  it 
picked  up  in  chunks  as  big  as  hen's  eggs,  you  no  longer 
wonder  at  the  fascination  which  holds  the  jjrospector  to  his 
life  of  solitude  and  })ri\ation   from   year  to  year.   Hope 


1 66  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

never  fails;  he  hasn't  "  struck  it  rich  "  yet;  but  he  may  to- 
morrow. 1  saw,  on  an  island  off  the  south  coast  of  Alaska, 
a  typical  prospector — a  prospector  is  a  miner  who  hasn't 
struck  it  yet.  This  old  man  was  bent  with  age  and  crippled 
by  rheumatism.  He  came  aboard  our  ship  to  get  some 
medicine  from  the  ship's  doctor.  The  doctor  ministered 
to  him  the  best  he  could,  but  told  him  plainly  that  he  had 
a  serious  infirmity  and  that  if  he  didn't  stop  work,  stop 
camping  on  the  ground  and  take  good  care  of  himself  he 
would  soon  die.  The  old  fellow  limped  down  the  gangway 
to  his  little  boat,  saying  that  he  was  just  about  to  strike  a 
rich  lead  and  he  couldn't  stop  now.  Our  pilot  knew  him; 
he  had  a  family  in  San  Francisco  and  sons  able  and  will- 
ing to  care  for  him,  but  he  preferred  the  great  game  of 
chance  to  which  he  had  given  twenty  years  of  his  life 
already,  and  lived  in  hope.  Some  day  he  will  be  found 
dead  in  his  cabin,  and  his  name,  unlike  those  of  the  few 
fortunates,  but  like  the  great  majority  of  gold-seekers, 
will  not  be  read  in  the  newspapers. 

But  not  all  the  prospecting  or  all  the  mining  of  western 
Alaska  is  going  on  in  the  vicinity  of  Nome.  Thanks  to  our 
exceedingly  defective  mining  laws  it  is  possible  for  the 
dog  in  the  manger  to  play  his  part  in  Alaska  to  the  limit, 
and  he  is  doing  it.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent  a  single 
prospector  from  staking  as  much  ground  as  he  pleases,  and 
where  the  indications  are  good  he  pleases  to  stake  every- 
thing in  sight.  Owing  to  these  same  legal  defects  he  may 
hold  his  claims  indefinitely  without  doing  anything  to 
develop  them,   if  only  he  is  clever  about  it.  And  he  is 


NOME  AND  THE  GOLD  FIELDS         167 

holding  them,  in  more  than  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  hoping 
that  some  one  will  come  and  buy  them  or  till  some  one, 
thinking  they  have  been  abandoned,  files  on  them.  If  they 
prove  to  be  valuable  he  is  then  prepared  to  pounce  on  the 
one  who  has  spent  the  money  to  prove  their  value  and. 


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Washing  out  Gold  with  a  "Long  Tom"  near  Nome 

aided  by  a  lot  of  others  of  the  manger  breed,  compel  hiiii 
to  pay  a  large  sum  for  a  quit  claim  or  to  divide  the  out- 
put, or  possilily  to  vacate  altogether.  I'hc  senatorial  com- 
mittee took  stenographic  reports  here  and  at  all  the  places 
visited  of  the  recommendations  of  miners  ami  business 
men  and  lawyers,  and  will  undoubtedly  ciukaxour  to  so 
change  the  mining  laws  as  to  compel  those  who  do  not 


i68         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

develop  their  claims  to  abandon  them  so  that  others  may 
make  them  productive. 

This  dog-in-the-manger  practice  has  had  one  partially 
compensating  result — it  has  compelled  the  late  comers  to 
go  on  further  into  unprospected  parts  of  the  peninsula  and 
develop  the  fact  that  there  is  "  pay  dirt "  scattered  pretty 
nearly  all  over  the  peninsula.  Some  of  It  is  of  too  low 
grade  to  admit  of  profitable  mining  by  the  crude  methods 
of  the  pan  and  the  rocker,  but  may  be  made  exceedingly 
profitable  when  handled  by  machinery  on  an  economical 
scale.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  there  are  thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  acres  cf  ground  on  the  Seward 
Peninsula  alone  which  will  pay  rich  returns  when  they 
come  to  be  handled  by  improved  methods.  That  means 
that  large  numbers  of  Individual  claims  must  pass  into 
the  hands  of  a  few  having  capital;  that  the  business  of 
taking  gold  out  of  Alaska  has  scarcely  commenced;  that  it 
will  yet  become  a  permanent  Industry — as  permanent  as 
coal  mining  in  Pennsylvania — and  that  it  will  take  genera- 
tions to  exhaust  the  mineral  wealth  of  those  marvellously 
rich  and  marvellously  extensive  gold  fields. 

Other  sections  of  the  peninsula  where  Important  gold- 
mining  operations  are  going  on  are  the  Council  City  dis- 
trict, seventy-five  miles  northeast  of  Nome  and  forty  or 
fifty  miles  from  the  sea;  the  Solomon  River  country  In 
the  same  direction,  but  not  so  far  away,  and  along  several 
of  the  streams  flowing  Into  Kotzebue  Sound  on  the  north 
side  of  Seward  Peninsula.  The  Council  City  district  is 
becoming  the  scene  of  very  important  operations.   Con- 


NOME  AND  THE  GOLD  FIELDS        169 

siderable  quantities  of  machinery  have  been  taken  into 
that  section  through  Golofnin  Bay  and  by  boats  up  the 
river.  A  short  railroad  supplements  the  river  craft,  cheap- 
ening transportation  and  adding  to  the  profit  of  mining. 
A  railroad  is  also  under  way  from  the  coast  up  the  Solomon 
River  and  it  is  expected  that  eventually  it  will  connect 
with  the  Council  City  road,  and  also  be  extended  westward 
along  the  beach  to  Nome.  This  railroad  construction  sug- 
gests the  confidence  of  the  builders  in  the  future  of  these 
mining  districts. 

Nome  is  an  incorporated  city.  The  board  of  alder- 
men elect  one  of  their  number  to  the  office  of  mayor.  Of 
course,  there  is  no  lack  of  that  element  which  is  the  curse 
of  every  mining  camp;  but  good  order  seems  to  be  main- 
tained and  perhaps  is  not  so  difficult  to  secure,  for  a  part 
of  the  year,  at  least,  as  in  the  frontier  towns  in  the  States, 
from  the  fact  that  in  winter,  which  means  eight  months  of 
the  year  there,  escape  from  the  officers  of  the  law  is  ex- 
tremely difficult.  The  fugitive  from  justice  who  leaves 
Nome  in  winter  is  likely  to  be  found  in  some  melting  snow- 
bank when  spring  comes.  When  he  leaves  Nome  there  is 
no  other  place  to  which  he  can  go.  The  federal  authorities 
had  taken  a  hand  in  the  suppression  of  vice  and  public 
gambling  just  prior  to  the  senatorial  visit.  Nome  was  up- 
to-date  in  another  important  particular,  too.  It  had  an 
aldermanic  boodle  trial  in  progress.  Nome  has  a  good 
school  building,  several  churches,  and  two  semi-weekly 
newspapers  that  are  creditable  to  the  city,  the  Nii\i\![^el  and 
the  Gold-Digger.  The  city  is  built  of  wood,  as  are  all  the 


lyo 


ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 


other  towns  of  Alaska.  No  lire  insurance  is  written  here 
except  on  the  warehouses  of  the  large  commercial  com- 
panies. The  fire  service  uses  in  summer  water  from  the 
main  which  brings  in  the  city  supply  by  gravity  from  the 


Curio  Peddlers  at  Nome 

hills,  but  in  winter  water  for  lighting  fires  must  be  pumped 
from  the  sea  through  the  ice. 

Living  in  Nome  is  much  less  expensive  than  in  any  other 
part  of  northern  and  central  Alaska  because  it  has  ocean 
transportation,  and  in  summer,  when  Bering  Sea  is  open, 
prices  are  not  much  higher  than  In  Seattle. 

Fort  Davis,  with  its  garrison  of  one  company,  is  three 
miles  east  of  Nome,  on  the  beach,  but  since  the  early  days 


NOME  AND  THE  GOLD  FIELDS        171 

of  beach  mining  the  soldiers  have  had  httle  to  do.  There 
is  also  an  equipment  for  a  life-saving  station  for  which 
Congress,  in  its  inability  to  appreciate  properly  any  of  its 
duties  toward  Alaska,  has  provided  no  crew.  It  would  take 
$5,000  to  $6,000  to  maintain  a  crew  for  four  months 
when  the  sea  is  open,  but  that  is  a  trifling  sum  compared 
to  the  importance  of  the  work  to  be  done.  During  our 
stay  two  expert  oarsmen  and  swimmers  were  capsised  in 
the  surf  and  were  rescued  with  great  difficulty  and  nearly 
dead.  Many  lives  are  lost  there  every  year,  which  might 
be  saved  if  this  station  were  manned  at  the  light  expense 
mentioned. 

In  summer  Nome  gets  mail  on  nearly  every  steamer 
from  Seattle,  but  in  winter  letters,  but  no  papers,  are 
supposed  to  be  brought  from  Dawson  once  a  month,  al- 
though the  service  is  uncertain.  One  of  the  severest  hard- 
ships of  winter  residence  in  Nome  is  the  fact  that  it  takes 
at  least  a  hundred  days  to  get  an  answer  by  mail  from  any 
place  in  the  central  or  eastern  part  of  the  United  States. 
What  this  often  implies  in  the  way  of  anxiety  and  home- 
sickness and  mental  depression  can  be  imagined.  Insanity 
is  not  unknown  in  Alaska.  Telegraphic  communication 
now  established  with  the  outside  world,  and  bringing  the 
most  important  news  of  the  day,  will  do  much  to  relie\-e  the 
long  Arctic  winter  of  its  dreariness  antl  gloom. 

The  Nome  district,  by  which  is  meant  the  Seward 
Peninsula,  has  appeared  in  the  gold  reports  for  eight 
years.  Ihe  total  outjnit,  including  190;^,  is  ajiproximately 
$28,000,000.     The  production  of  the  Nome  district  and 


172         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

all  Alaska  for  the  year  1904  Is  not  yet  officially  stated, 
but  judging  by  preliminary  estimates  from  official  sources 
it  will  approximate  $6,000,000,  more  than  two-thirds  of 
it  coming  from  the  Nome  district.  This  is  at  least  a 
million  dollars  under  reasonable  expectations  for  present 
development,  the  shortage  being  due  to  an  insufficient 
water  supply  and  a  short  sluicing  season.  The  water  fur- 
nished by  the  ditch  companies  is  taken  now  from  what 
might  be  described  as  local  sources,  and  a  season  of  light 
rainfall  or  a  season  of  light  snowfall,  which  sometimes  fol- 
low each  other,  as  happened  last  year,  creates  a  water 
famine,  so  to  speak.  What  the  Nome  district  needs,  along 
with  better  facilities  for  transportation  over  land,  is  a 
larger  and  more  permanent  water  supply.  Some  time  this 
will  undoubtedly  be  obtained  from  the  Kigluaik  Mountains, 
40  miles  to  the  northward.  There  an  abundant  water  sup- 
ply can  be  had  for  all  mining  operations,  and  the  fall 
would  also  provide  power  which  could  be  converted  into 
electricity  and  applied  to  the  various  mining  operations. 

When  you  compare  the  gold  of  Nome  with  the  value  of 
the  crops  in  a  good  agricultural  section  of  equal  area  in  the 
United  States  it  does  not  amount  to  much;  but  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  entire  white  population  of  Alaska 
is  only  30,000,  about  that  of  an  average  county  in  the 
Middle  States,  and  that  the  Nome  gold-bearing  area  has 
scarcely  been  touched  as  yet. 

Some  interesting  facts  bearing  upon  what  it  costs  to 
produce  the  world's  gold  supply,  even  from  so  rich  a 
district  as  the  Seward  Peninsula,  are  afforded  by  the  statis- 


NOME  AND  THE  GOLD  FIELDS        173 

tics  of  travel  and  traffic  with  that  section.  Seattle  shipped 
during  the  season  of  1903,  110,750  tons  of  freight  to 
Nome  and  St.  Michael.  The  value,  on  the  basis  of  $100 
a  ton,  was  $11,750,000.  The  freight  on  this  merchan- 
dise ranged  from  $7  to  $22.50  per  ton,  while  the  5,553 
people,  who  shipped  at  Seattle  for  Nome,  paid  from  $30 
to  $125  apiece  for  their  passage.  Now  all  this  outlay,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  time  of  ten  or  twelve  thousand  people 
engaged,  taken  into  account  and  compared  with  the  gold 
output  of  gold  mining  in  Alaska,  does  not  look  like  a  very 
profitable  business.  But  when  did  gold  or  silver  mining 
ever  distribute  its  favours  impartially?  It  is  a  great  game, 
in  which  few  men  win  and  many  lose.  It  will  be  always 
so.  Some  men  win  enormous  fortunes,  and  their  good  luck 
will  always  attract  many  more,  a  few  of  whom  will  be 
successful.  Every  man  thus  attracted  hopes  that  he  will 
be  the  next  favourite  of  chance,  and  so  he  struggles  on  in 
Alaska,  in  Colorado,  in  Africa.  The  world's  supply  of 
gold  is  constantly  added  to,  but  it  costs  more,  all  things 
considered,  than  it  represents  in  value  or  purchasing 
power. 

Coal  costs  $17  to  $20  a  ton  in  Nome,  and  $45  to  $50 
a  ton  25  miles  in  the  interior.  Coal  has  been  found  on  the 
Yukon,  and  on  the  west  coast  of  Alaska,  the  most  im- 
portant discovery  being  that  at  Cape  Lisburnc,  where  it 
is  mined  for  commercial  purposes.  Alaska's  coal,  how- 
ever, so  far  as  discovered,  is  comparatively  of  inferior 
grade  and  does  not  figure  as  an  important  resource  of  the 
country.  A  more  promising  fuel  supply  is  found  In  the 


174         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

manufacture  of  peat  from  the  thick  matted  mass  of 
roots  and  vines  which  cover  the  tundra,  and  which,  when 
prepared  as  peat  is  prepared,  will  make  an  excellent 
fuel,  and  for  fuel  purposes  in  the  interior  is  likely  to  come 
into  use.  Ihe  Seward  Peninsula,  it  should  be  understood, 
is  barren  of  timber,  and  the  only  fuel  supply  of  the  natives, 
prior  to  the  arrival  of  white  men,  was  the  driftwood 
brought  down  by  the  Yukon  and  cast  upon  the  shore. 

Note. — Among  the  exhibits  in  the  Alaska  building  at  the  Louisiana  Purchase  Exposi- 
tion was  a  quantity  of  tin  ore  from  Cape  York,  in  the  extreme  western  part  of  the  Seward 
Peninsula.  How  extensive  or  how  important  these  deposits  are  has  not  been  fully  deter- 
mined, but  the  indications  are  favourable.  Fourteen  claims  are  said  to  have  been  sold  in  one 
group  for  $40,000,  and  owners  of  some  of  these  deposits  are  seeking  to  have  smelters 
erected  at  Seattle  in  order  to  create  there  a  market  for  their  ore. 


VIII 
THE  SEAL  ISLANDS 

BERING  SEA  is  a  lonesome  corner  of  the  Earth. 
It  is  considerably  less  than  200  years  since  it  began 
to  be  navigated  at  all  by  white  men.  Alaska  was 
disco\'ered  in  1741.  Some  unsuccessful  voyages  in  that 
direction  had  been  made  shortly  before  that  time,  but 
long  after  navigators  had  circled  the  globe  and  had  be- 
come familiar  with  the  waters  of  the  southern  oceans  and 
after  the  habitable  world  had  been  pretty  thoroughly  ex- 
plored in  all  other  directions,  the  fur  traders  of  Russia 
began  to  venture  out  across  the  unknown  seas  to  the  east- 
ward of  Siberia  in  their  crude  and  clumsy  and  unsea- 
worthy  vessels. 

1  he  story  of  Russian  discovery  in  northwest  America 
is  full  of  disaster.  Scores  of  ships  and  hundreds  of  li\-es 
were  lost  both  before  and  alter  the  \'oyage  of  tliscox'ery, 
which  was  not  accomplished  without  the  tleath  of  Vitus 
Bering  himself,  shipwrecked  on  a  bleak  and  desolate 
island  in  the  sea  which  bears  his  name.  Russian  occupation 
o)  the  Alaskan  coast — the  Russians  can  hardly  be  saitl  to 
have  occupied  the  interior — finally  came  to  require  the 
service  of  many  ships  to  maintain  communication  between 
the  Russian-American  fur-trading  posts  and  the  ports  of 
the  Siberian  coast.    IJiit  for  lorty  years  and  more  the  ves- 

"75 


176         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

sels  of  the  Russian  traders  continued  to  plough  the  waters 
of  this  northern  sea,  bringing  merchandise  of  many  kinds 
and  carrying  back  the  furs  and  pelts,  before  they  discov- 
ered that  bonanza  of  the  fur  traders,  the  fur-seal  islands. 
They  had  taken  the  seal  at  sea  and  had  learned  the  value 
of  the  pelts,  but  it  was  not  until  1786  that  Gerassim 
Pribylov,  after  repeated  efforts  to  follow  the  seals  on  their 
northward  migration  in  the  spring,  discovered  their  des- 
tination. Groping  cautiously  among  the  fog  banks,  he 
heard  one  morning  the  barking  of  myriads  of  these  curi- 
ous animals  and  knew  that  the  object  of  his  search  must 
be  near.  The  island  coasts  are  usually  rocky  and  dan- 
gerous, and  he  approached  cautiously  till  the  fog  lifted 
and  revealed  the  low-lying  islands  with  their  rocky  shores 
swarming  with  millions  of  seals.  The  mystery  of  the 
summer  migration  of  the  fur  seals  was  solved;  here  on 
these  islands,  which  bear  their  discoverer's  name,  was 
their  breeding  place,  and  here  on  these  rocks  they  were 
killed  by  the  million  for  their  valuable  skins,  till  the  in- 
discriminate slaughter  had  well-nigh  exterminated  them 
and  it  became  necessary  to  set  a  limit  to  the  yearly  catch 
in  order  to  save  the  species  from  extinction. 

Our  approach  to  the  seal  islands  was  attended  with 
difficulties  similar  to  those  encountered  by  their  discoverer. 

The  revenue-cutter  McCulloch,  having  on  board  the 
senatorial  party,  sailed  from  Nome,  Saturday  afternoon, 
August  I.  For  two  days  the  surf  had  rolled  so  high 
against  the  beach  that  no  boat  of  any  description  could 
live  in  it  for  five  minutes.   Outside,  a  mile  from  shore,  lay 


THE  SEAL  ISLANDS  177 

our  ship  and  several  others,  but  no  one  dared  venture 
across  the  foaming  flood.  Saturday  about  noon  the  wind 
fell,  and  in  that  shallow  sea  the  falling  of  the  wind  is  soon 
followed  by  the  subsidence  of  the  waves.  At  three 
o'clock  we  were  on  board,  and  an  hour  later,  Nome,  lying 
along  the  low  shore,  had  disappeared  from  sight  and  we 
were  steaming  southward  over  Bering  Sea  bound  for  the 
seal  islands,  500  miles  southward. 

Our  course  lay  a  little  to  the  westward  from  the  track 
of  the  steamers  bound  from  Seattle  to  Nome.  All  night 
and  nearly  all  day  Sunday  we  ploughed  our  lonesome  way 
through  fog  and  mist  and  rain.  The  fog  whistle  sounded 
every  five  minutes,  but  not  a  sail  nor  an  answering  sound 
broke  the  solitude  of  that  unfrequented  sea.  Toward 
evening  the  navigator  knew  we  must  be  approaching  the 
seal  islands  and  we  went  ahead  at  slow  speed  till  sud- 
denly St.  George,  the  smaller  and  the  more  southerly  of 
the  two,  came  into  view.  We  desired,  however,  to  stop  at 
St.  Paul,  the  larger  island,  and  thither  we  returned  and 
found  a  safe  anchorage  near  the  village.  Lieutenant 
Barker  was  sent  ashore  to  arrange  for  a  visit  by  the 
senatorial  committee  the  next  morning. 

When  Alaska  was  purchased  in  1867  by  Secretary 
Seward,  these  islands,  as  well  as  the  Aleutian  chain  and 
all  the  islands  in  Bering  Sea  east  of  a  direct  line  drawn 
from  the  middle  of  Bering  Strait  to  a  point  midway  be- 
tween the  most  westerly  of  the  Aleutian  chain  ami  the 
Commander  Islands,  off  the  coast  of  Kamschatka,  came 
into  the  possession  of  the  United  States.    In  order  to  con- 


1 78         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

serve  the  sealing  industry,  the  exckisive  privilege  of  tak- 
ing the  seals  on  the  islands  was  granted  to  the  Alaska 
Commercial  company.  The  concession  was  for  a  period  of 
twenty  years  and  ran  from  1870  to  1890.  The  privilege 
passed  then  for  a  like  period  to  the  North  American  Com- 
mercial company.  The  Government  maintains  an  agent 
and  an  assistant  on  St.  Paul  Island  and  an  assistant  on 
St.  George,  to  see  that  the  terms  of  the  concession  are 
complied  with.  The  company  have  agents  on  both  islands 
to  carry  on  their  business. 

When  the  islands  were  discovered  by  the  Russians, 
there  were  no  human  inhabitants,  and  that  fact,  together 
with  the  rocky  shores,  low  and  easily  climbed  by  them, 
no  doubt  determined  the  selection  of  these  islands  by  the 
seals  as  their  breeding  grounds.  In  order  to  carry  on  the 
fur-sealing  business  successfully,  the  Russians  brought 
from  the  Aleutian  Islands  several  hundred  natives  and 
established  them  on  the  seal  islands  as  their  permanent 
home.  They  built  for  them  barrabkies,  or  dug-outs, 
clothed  and  fed  them  and  instructed  them  in  the  religion 
of  the  Russian  church.  But  their  condition  was  deplorable 
enough  when  the  American  company  was  given  posses- 
sion of  the  islands.  They  were  practically  in  a  state  of 
slavery.  Transported  without  their  consent,  they  were 
paid  mere  nominal  wages,  housed  in  wretched  hovels  and 
treated  more  like  animals  than  human  beings,  except  that 
they  were  required  to  attend  the  services  of  the  Russian 
church  and  to  contribute  of  their  meagre  wages  to  its 
support. 


THE  SEAL  ISLANDS  179 

With  the  change  from  Russian  to  American  occupation 
of  the  Islands  the  condition  of  the  nati\'es  was  greatly 
improved.  Good  frame  houses  were  built  for  them  by 
the  Alaska  Commercial  company,  the  price  paid  for  re- 
moving the  skins  was  raised  from  10  to  40  cents  a  pelt — 
it  is  now  50  cents — a  school  was  established  which  the 
children  were  required  to  attend,  the  sale  of  intoxicating 
liquors  in  the  islands  was  stopped,  a  hospital  and  medical 
attendance  were  provided,  and  the  condition  of  the  natives 
on  the  seal  Islands  is  the  envy  of  the  natives  of  the  other 
islands.  The  influence  of  the  Russian  church  has  been 
against  the  education  of  the  children,  especially  in  English, 
so  that  not  much  has  been  accomplished  in  that  direction. 
There  are  only  180  natives  on  the  islands  now,  the  greater 
number  being  residents  of  St.  Paul  Island,  where  the  seal 
catch  for  1903  approximated  19,000  skins,  while  at  St. 
George  Island  the  company  took  only  about  3,000,  mak- 
ing 22,000  as  the  total  season's  crop  on  both  islands. 

The  killing  is  always  done  early  in  the  morning  when 
the  temperature  is  lowest.  It  was  5  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing when  we  left  the  ship.  The  village  stands  back 
nearly  a  mile  from  the  shore  where  we  landed,  and  with 
Its  rows  of  white  cottages  for  the  natives,  the  white  resi- 
dence and  office  buildings  of  the  company  and  Its  store- 
houses, and  the  white  walls  and  yellow  and  blue  domes 
of  the  Greek  church,  presents,  on  the  green  hillside,  quite 
an  attractive  appearance.  The  killing  season  was  prac- 
tically over,  but  the  agents  had  arranged  for  a  drixe  for 
our  benefit.   7  he  seals  lie  along  the  rocky  shores,  the  bulls 


i8o         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

or  beachmasters,  as  they  are  called,  and  the  cows  and  their 
pups  occupying  the  rocks  nearest  the  water,  while  the 
bachelors,  the  young,  unmated  males,  are  forced  to  go 
farther  back  on  the  hillside.  As  the  bachelors  only  are 
killed  for  their  skins,  this  natural  division  facilitates  the 
work  of  the  drivers  in  making  their  selections.  Very  early 
in  the  morning  two  or  three  drivers  slip  in  quietly  be- 
tween the  bachelors  and  the  shore  and  "cut  out,"  as  the 
cowboys  would  say,  a  bunch  for  the  day's  killing.  They 
then  proceed  to  make  a  great  noise  by  shouting,  slapping 
pieces  of  board  together  and  by  beating  on  tin  cans.  The 
seals  are  frightened  and  the  squirming,  hobbling,  hud- 
dling mass  is  gradually  forced  away  from  the  rookery  or 
rocky  shore  to  the  grassy  upland. 

And  here  they  come,  bleating  like  a  flock  of  sheep, 
ambling  along  in  their  awkward  fashion  through  the  tall 
grass.  The  younger  males,  and  a  few  females  which  the 
drivers  will  not  try  to  separate  from  the  herd  till  the 
killing  ground  is  reached,  offer  no  resistance,  but  two  or 
three  old  bulls  gathered  up  with  the  younger  males,  but 
not  intended  for  the  slaughter,  show  fight  and  rush  at  the 
drivers  with  surprising  speed  and  agility  for  a  rod  or  two 
when  pressed  too  hard.  Nature  never  intended  these  ani- 
mals to  go  more  than  a  few  rods  from  the  shore,  and 
though  their  movements  in  the  water  are  all  that  the 
word  grace  can  describe,  their  movements  on  land  are 
clumsy  and  laborious.  As  they  are  driven  to  the  killing 
ground  their  gait  is  a  sort  of  canter,  as  they  raise  them- 
selves on  their  flippers  and  then  pull  their  heavy  bodies 


1 82         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

up.  They  repeat  this  movement  rapidly  for  a  hundred 
yards  and  then  fall,  panting  and  exhausted.  They  become 
so  heated  in  a  drive  of  200  rods  that  a  cloud  of  steam 
rises  from  the  clustered,  squirming  mass  and  they  must 
be  allowed  to  cool  off  before  the  killing  begins  or  their 
pelts  will  spoil. 

The  killing  ground  is  strewn  with  the  rotting  carcasses 
of  thousands  of  seals  which  have  been  slaughtered  there 
during  the  season  and  the  stench  is  almost  unbearable  to 
those  not  accustomed  to  it.  The  natives  and  the  agents 
themselves  seem  not  to  be  disturbed  by  it  and,  after  the 
seals  have  been  allowed  to  rest  and  cool  off  for  twenty 
minutes,  the  killing  commences. 

Since  milady  must  have  the  furs  which  these  pretty 
creatures  wear,  and  since  her  wants  cannot  be  satisfied 
without  killing  the  seals,  the  method  of  killing  adopted 
on  the  islands  probably  inflicts  less  suffering  on  the  part 
of  the  victims  than  any  other  that  could  be  devised.  But 
one  who  has  witnessed  the  operation  once  will  not  wish 
to  see  it  again. 

Here  come  the  killers,  three  gangs  of  them,  natives 
who  are  expert  at  the  business.  The  first  are  half  a  dozen 
men,  each  armed  with  a  mamlika  or  stout  club,  about  five 
feet  long  and  about  three  inches  thick  at  the  heavy  end. 
They  cut  out  a  bunch  of  twenty  or  thirty  of  the  fright- 
ened, huddling,  struggling  creatures  and,  striking  each  one 
on  the  head,  crush  the  soft,  thin  skull.  Death  is  instan- 
taneous. As  the  club  falls  with  a  thud  upon  each  grace- 
ful head  those  that  have  escaped  the  first  crushing  blows 


o 


Ui 


C/3 


H 


1 84         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

seem  to  become  conscious  of  their  Impending  fate,  and 
their  appealing  eyes,  soft  as  those  of  a  deer,  their  plaintive 
cries  and  their  frantic  but  ineffectual  struggles  to  escape 
would  certainly  stay  the  arm  of  any  one  not  schooled  by 
years  and  generations  to  do  this  cruel  work.  The  stranger 
to  this  scene  is  forced  to  turn  away,  though  he  must  admit 
that  the  slayers  are  skilful  and  that  not  a  throb  of  con- 
scious pain  follows  the  descent  of  the  heavy  club.  After 
the  killers  come  three  or  four  men  with  big  knives,  who 
open  the  pelts  down  the  under  side  of  the  body  and  probe 
the  hearts  with  their  long  blades.  The  third  squad  are  six 
or  eight  experts  who  remove  the  pelts,  and  who  wield 
their  knives  so  dextrously  that  within  thirty  seconds  in 
some  cases  the  soft  pelt  Is  stripped  clean  and  thrown  fuf 
side  up  on  the  wet  grass.  In  the  earlier  part  of  the  killing 
season  which  now  lasts  only  about  six  weeks,  in  July  and 
August,  the  carcasses  are  left  to  rot  on  the  killing  grounds, 
but  In  the  latter  part  of  the  season  considerable  quantities 
of  seal  meat  are  saved  for  consumption  by  the  natives. 
Seal  oil  is  also  made  for  the  use  of  the  natives  and  to 
some  extent  for  commercial  purposes,  but  It  Is  not  now  an 
Important  part  of  the  business. 

The  pelt  of  the  seal,  as  it  lies  on  the  killing  ground, 
bears  no  resemblance  to  the  glossy,  dark-brown  coat  which 
Is  such  a  popular  winter  garment  here  at  home.  It  Is 
about  3  feet  long  by  2  or  2  1-2  feet  wide,  on  the  average, 
has  a  grey,  neutral  tint  from  the  long  hairs  that  pro- 
ject beyond  the  fur,  and  has  little  of  the  beauty  of  the 
finished  product  as  It  comes  plucked  and  dyed  from  the 


nfct-'-fti-aii.- 


Oh 


1 86         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

hands  of  the  London  furrier.  It  is  pro\  ided  in  the  con- 
tract that  only  the  males  two  years  old  and  upwards  may 
be  killed  on  the  islands,  and  out  of  this  driv^e  twenty  or 
thirty  young  females  and  three  or  four  old  bulls,  whose 
fur  is  too  coarse  for  the  market,  were  allowed  to  escape 
and  find  their  way  back  to  the  rookery.  The  agents  of  the 
Government  are  on  hand  at  every  killing  to  see  that  no 
females  are  killed,  although  that  sometimes  happens,  as 
our  party  could  testify. 

From  the  killing  ground  the  skins  are  taken  to  the  salt- 
house,  where  they  are  laid  together  in  pairs,  the  flesh  side 
in,  with  a  sprinkling  of  coarse  salt  between.  After  remain- 
ing there  for  two  or  three  weeks,  the  skins  are  tied  up  in 
pairs  in  compact  bundles  and  are  ready  for  market.  The 
sealskin  market  is  still  in  London,  where  the  best  process 
of  tanning  and  drying  has  been  a  well-guarded  monopoly 
for  many  years,  though  the  method  of  treatment  is  now 
understood  in  this  country  and  would  doubtless  become 
an  important  industry  if  the  seals  were  not  being  gradually 
exterminated,  not  by  the  company  having  the  lease  of  the 
islands,  but  by  the  poachers  at  sea. 

The  first  year  after  the  islands  were  discovered,  two 
million  seal  pelts  were  taken.  The  market  was  glutted 
and  the  price  fell  to  the  equivalent  of  $i  for  a  skin.  Indis- 
criminate slaughter  nearly  exterminated  the  seals  and  the 
Russian  Government  had  to  regulate  the  sealing  business. 
A  Russian  company  was  given  the  exclusive  privilege  of 
taking  sealskins  on  the  Islands.  When  the  United  States 
came  into  possession  of  the  islands,  in  1867,  and  granted 


THE  SEAL  ISLANDS  187 

an  exclusive  sealing  privilege  on  the  islands,  commencing 
1870,  it  was  provided  that  not  more  than  100,000  skins 
should  be  taken  in  one  year.  That  number  has  rarely  been 
reached  as  an  annual  catch.  The  chief  cause  of  the  decline 
in  the  number  of  seals  on  the  rookeries — hundreds  now 
where  there  used  to  be  thousands — was  pelagic  sealing. 
Pelagic  sealing  is  taking  the  seals  at  sea,  and  it  is  par- 
ticularly destructive  because  the  poacher  cannot  tell 
whether  he  is  killing  males  or  females,  and,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  does  not  care.  The  habits  of  these  animals  are 
very  interesting.  Where  they  come  from  in  the  spring  or 
early  summer,  and  where  they  go  to  in  the  autumn,  is  some- 
thing of  a  mystery — the  South  Pacific  probably,  but  they 
seem  never  to  land  anywhere — those  which  Irctjucnt  the 
rookeries  of  the  extreme  South  Pacific  Ocean  probably 
never  finding  their  way  north  of  the  middle  Pacific.  As 
the  sea  is  their  natural  habitat,  and  furnishes  both  food 
antl  lodging,  they  probably  do  not  touch  land  from  the 
time  they  leave  it  in  the  fall  till  they  return  again  in  the 
early  summer. 

I'he  first  to  arrive  on  the  seal  islands  as  soon  as  the 
ice  is  gone  are  the  older  males,  who  come  to  select  the 
sites  of  their  summer  residence.  7  hey  locate,  but  not  with- 
out a  good  deal  of  fighting  over  the  choice  spots,  and 
await  the  arrival  of  the  females,  whom  they  gather  in 
harems  of  half  a  do/en  to  fifteen  or  twenty  as  fast  as 
they  arrive.  7  he  young  are  l)orn  soon  after  the  females 
arrive,  one  to  each   female. 

Somebody,  the  Russians  or  the  natives,   is  responsible 


1 88         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

for  a  very  peculiar  seal  nomenclature.  The  mated  male  is 
called  a  bull,  or  in  the  island  vernacular,  a  "  sicatch  ";  the 
unmated  male,  who  is  younger,  is  called  a  bachelor,  or 
"  holluschikie  " ;  the  female  is  called  a  cow,  and  her  off- 
spring a  pup,  though  the  latter  is  the  only  seal  that  bears 
any  resemblance  to  bulls  or  cows  or  pups.  The  baby  seal 
looks  very  much  like  a  little  black  pup  as  he  lies  curled  up 
asleep  among  the  rocks;  but  when  he  cries  he  makes  a  noise 
a  good  deal  like  the  bleat  of  a  lamb.  They  look  as  much 
alike  as  a  handful  of  peas,  and  a  cluster  of  them  is  called  a 
pod.  The  breeding  grounds  are  called  rookeries,  though 
they  are  only  the  black,  rocky  shores  of  the  islands,  with 
nothing  about  them  to  suggest  the  usual  significance  of  the 
term. 

A  few  days  after  the  pup  is  born  his  mother  goes  to  sea 
for  food.  Her  first  excursion  is  not  long,  and  when  she 
returns  she  has  no  difl^iculty  in  picking  out  her  own  among 
the  thousands  of  little,  wriggling,  crying  and  hungry 
creatures  that  crawl  and  tumble  over  the  rocks  made 
smooth  and  slippery  by  ages  of  travel  over  them  by  gen- 
erations of  seals.  The  later  trips  of  the  mother  seal  are 
longer  as  the  food  supply  is  becoming  scarce  near  the 
islands,  where  there  are  so  many  thousands  to  be  fed  on 
fish,  and  her  necessities  may  take  her  a  hundred  or  more 
miles  from  the  islands.  It  is  when  the  females  are  on 
these  excursions  for  food  that  the  seal  poachers  reap  their 
harv^est.  While  the  seal  fishers  of  other  nations  cannot 
come  upon  the  islands  and  take  the  seals  there,  they  can 
hover  around  outside  the  three-mile  limit  and  catch  the 


I 


THE  SEAL  ISLANDS  189 

females  in  large  numbers.  The  death  of  the  female  means 
also  the  death  of  her  pup  on  the  island,  as  there  are 
no  nurses  in  fur-sealdom  and  no  seal  mother  will  minister 
to  the  hunger  of  any  seal  baby  but  her  own.  The  seals 
caught  at  sea  during  the  summer  are  almost  all  females 
because  the  mated  males  never  leave  the  rookeries  from 
the  time  they  arrive  in  the  early  part  of  June  till  they 
depart  in  September.  These  old  Mormons  of  the  sea  are 
exceedingly  jealous  lords  and  will  not  leave  their  rocky 
reserves  till  the  time  comes  for  the  whole  seal  pack  to 
depart  for  warmer  climes.  Talk  about  the  fast  cure — 
these  old  fellows,  who  arriv^e  fat  and  sleek  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  season,  do  not  get  a  mouthful  to  eat  during 
their  summer-long  residence  on  the  islands  and  depart  in 
the  fall,  lean  and  hungry. 

Ihey  stand  guard  day  and  night  growling  and  snarl- 
ing, at  every  disturbance  of  their  domestic  circles,  and 
exposing  savage  teeth  that  could  tear  and  lacerate  fear- 
fully on  opportunity.  The  visitor  is  abundantly  warned 
to  keep  at  a  respectful  distance,  not  less  than  forty  or  fifty 
feet.  Closer  intrusion  Is  likely  to  provoke  a  charge  by 
the  old  beachmaster,  and  the  speed  which  he  can  develop 
when  enraged  is  surprising.  The  battles  which  are  some- 
times fought  between  rivals  on  the  rookeries  are  described 
as  terribly  fierce  and  lasting  usually  till  one  old  warrior 
or  the  other  is  completely  disabled.  The  rules  of  the 
rookery  provide  for  a  fair  fight — there  is  no  outside 
Interference  when  two  "  sicatch  "  become  Involved  In  a 
personal  altercation  over  the  affections  of  some  little  fawn- 


I90         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

eyed  beauty  of  the  beach;  and  such  badges  of  conflict  as 
some  of  these  veterans  of  many  duels  wear,  would  be  a 
source  of  swelling  pride  to  a  German  student. 

Pelagic  sealing,  or  sea  poaching,  threatened  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  seal  fisheries  at  an  early  date.  Some  of  the 
poachers  were  Americans  and  more  of  them  Canadians. 
Our  Government  undertook  to  patrol  the  waters  of 
Bering  Sea  as  an  inland  water,  and  claim  exclusive  prop- 
erty in  the  seals.  Vessels  belonging  to  other  nations  were 
seized  and  an  attempt  was  made  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
pelagic  sealing  in  Bering  Sea.  Other  nations  denied  our 
claims,  and  after  considerable  friction  had  been  engen- 
dered between  our  Government  and  Canada,  Great  Britain 
and  the  L^nited  States  submitted  the  matter  to  what  was 
known  as  the  Paris  Tribunal.  That  board  of  arbitration 
denied  our  claim  to  exclusiv^e  seal-fishing  rights  in  Bering 
Sea,  but  established  a  sixty-mile  limit  within  which  the 
fisheries  of  neither  nation  might  take  seals.  This  regula- 
tion is  enforced  against  the  ships  of  both  nations  by  patrol 
boats  of  both  nations,  one  or  the  other  being  on  duty  all 
the  time,  and  is  sufficient  to  prevent  poaching  by  ships  of 
either  nation  party  to  this  arbitration;  but  no  other 
nations  concede  that  they  are  bound  by  this  regulation  of 
no  sealing  within  a  radius  of  sixty  miles.  Japanese  ves- 
sels, for  example,  do  not  hesitate  to  invade  this  zone. 
There  is  evidence  to  show,  too,  that  British  and,  possibly, 
American  seal  fishers  have  resorted  to  the  protection  of 
the  Japanese  flag  in  order  to  get  within  less  than  sixty 
miles  of  the  islands. 


THE  SEAL  ISLANDS  191 

The  mate  of  the  Healy,  the  boat  which  carried  our 
senatorial  party  down  the  lower  Yukon  to  St.  Michael, 
was  at  one  time  engaged  in  pelagic  sealing,  and  his 
description  of  this  really  exciting  sport  interested  me. 
Albert  Edwards  was  on  Bering  Sea  as  a  hunter  for  a 
Canadian  sealing  ship  in  1893,  ^^e  year  the  arbitration 
tribunal  met  in  Paris.  It  was  the  custom,  he  said,  for  a 
sealing  ship  to  carry  eight  or  ten  small  boats,  in  each  of 
which  they  sent  out  a  hunter  and  two  oarsmen  to  search 
for  and  capture  seals  wherev^er  they  could  be  found 
on  the  sea.  The  hunter  is  armed  with  a  gun  loaded  with 
buckshot.  He  stands  in  the  prow  of  the  boat  and  care- 
fully scans  the  sea  for  sleeping  seal.  The  seal  is  a  sleepy- 
head. His  appetite  satisfied  after  a  good  morning's  fish- 
ing, he  curls  up  on  his  back,  folds  his  flippers  across  his 
breast  and  snores  so  loudly  sometimes  that  he  can  be 
heard  for  several  rods.  When  what  is  supposed  to  be  good 
seal-fishing  ground  is  reached,  the  vessel  stops  and  anchors 
if  possible.  The  boats  work  out  to  windward.  Every 
precaution  is  necessary,  as  the  seal  seems  to  be  able  to 
smell  the  hunters  half  a  mile  off  when  the  wind  is  right. 
The  small  boats  mo\e  on  quietly,  more  careful  to  avoid 
exposing  themselves  through  the  animal's  sense  of  smell 
than  through  his  sense  of  hearing.  It  takes  a  practised 
and  keen  eye  to  discover  the  seal  among  the  waves,  and 
a  lot  of  careful  maiKruvring  to  get  within  i^atige.  A 
successful  shot,  and  the  floating  prey  of  the  marksman  is 
pulled  into  the  boat,  skinned  and  the  carcass  thrown  over- 
board and  the  search  begins  again.  The  hunters  were  paid 


192         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

$1.50  for  each  skin  when  seals  were  comparatively 
plenty  and  the  market  price  was  low,  but  as  the  price 
advanced  from  $9  or  $10  to  $20  or  $22,  as  it  is  now, 
the  hunters  demanded  and  secured  $5  apiece  for  all  the 
skins  they  brought  in.  In  their  search  for  seal  the  small 
boats  often  wandered  miles  away  from  their  ship  and 
before  going  out  of  sight,  as  they  sometimes  did,  took 
their  bearings  by  the  compass  to  insure  safe  return.  The 
insurance  was  not  always  good,  however,  and  many  small- 
boat  crews  have  chased  the  seal  too  far.  Edwards  relates 
that  he  was  once  lost  on  Bering  Sea  for  over  a  week  and 
the  revenue  cutter  McCulloch  on  its  way  up  to  St. 
Michael  to  meet  our  party  picked  up  a  boat  containing 
a  hunter  and  two  oarsmen  who  were  lost  from  a  Japanese 
seal  poacher  and  had  been  drifting  about  several  days. 

The  North  American  Commercial  company,  which 
holds  from  the  Government  the  exclusive  sealing  privilege 
on  Pribylov  Islands,  is  not  enjoying  a  very  profitable 
monopoly  at  the  present  time.  The  seal  herds  have  been 
so  depleted  that  a  catch  of  20,000  is  difficult  to  get  and 
the  annual  product  of  the  islands  is  diminishing.  The 
annual  rental  payable  to  the  Government  was  fixed  at 
$60,000,  but  that  contemplated  a  catch  approximating 
100,000  skins.  This  rental  has  been  scaled  down  to 
$12,000,  but  the  fixed  charges  of  over  $10  a  pelt,  in- 
cluding a  tax  of  $9.62,  do  not  leave  a  very  large  margin 
of  profit.  While  the  industry  is  now  nearly  extinct,  owing 
chiefly  to  the  ravages  of  the  poachers,  who  take  more 
pelts  now  than  the  leasing  company,  a  suspension  of  the 


THE  SEAL  ISLANDS  193 

killing  for  a  few  years  would  soon  restore  the  rookeries 
to  their  once  populous  state.  In  1834  the  Russian  sealers 
had  reduced  the  number  on  the  rookeries  to  8,000  seals. 
Seal-fishing  was  suspended  for  thirty-three  years  and 
poaching  prohibited  by  the  Russian  Government,  which 
then  claimed  the  right  to  control  Bering  Sea,  and  in  1867, 
when  the  United  States  came  into  possession  of  the  islands, 
the  herd  had  increased  to  upwards  of  4,000,000. 


IX 

THE  ALASKAN  FISHERIES 

i4  T  some  time  in  the  history  of  tHe  world,  while  the 
/-\  earth  was  being  prepared  for  human  habitation, 
-^  -^  volcanic  action  appears  to  have  lifted  a  ridge  in 
the  earth's  crust  above  the  waters  of  the  sea  till  it  ap- 
peared in  almost  continuous  line  from  the  southwest  coast 
of  Alaska  to  the  Asiatic  shore.  How  near  Bering  Sea 
came  to  being  a  bay  of  the  Arctic  Ocean  and  cut  off  from 
the  Pacific  probably  not  every  one  realises. 

Beginning  with  the  Alaskan  peninsula,  which  juts  out 
between  the  Pacific  and  Bering  Sea  for  nearly  500  miles, 
the  volcanic  ridge  fails  to  reach  the  surface  continuously, 
but  appears  at  frequent  intervals,  for  a  thousand  miles 
further,  in  what  is  known  as  the  Aleutian  chain  of 
islands. 

It  may  not  be  generally  appreciated  that  Nome  and  the 
seal  islands  are  farther  west  than  Honolulu,  that  Attu, 
the  most  western  of  the  Aleutian  chain,  is  not  as  far  from 
the  Asiatic  coast  as  is  St.  Louis  from  Minneapolis  and  that 
it  is  nearer  from  Attu  to  the  Kommander  Islands,  just  off 
the  coast  of  Kamschatka,  than  from  Minneapolis  to  Mil- 
waukee. This  Alaskan  peninsula  and  the  Aleutian  Islands, 
if  stretched  out  across  our  continent,  would  reach  from 
Minneapolis  to   Boston.   Such   comparisons  may   help   to 

IQ4 


THE  ALASKAN  FISHERIES 


^95 


convey  a   clearer  idea   of  the   far  western   reach  of  our 
Alaskan  possessions. 

One  of  the  largest  of  the  Aleutian  chain  is  the  island 
of  Unalaska,  lying  in  practically  the  same  longitude  with 


Unalaska 

the  Hawaiian  Islands.  Shut  within  the  heart  of  this  island 
is  one  of  the  finest  harhours  in  the  world.  Entered  bv  a 
somewhat  circuitous  route  from  the  north  side  of  the 
islanti,  this  harbour  is  completely  surrounded  by  high 
mountains  and  affords  a  safe  refuge  for  ships  of  the 
heaviest  draft;  where  they  may  load  and  unload  at  com- 
modious wharves,  no  matter  what  storms  may  rage  with- 
out on  the  open  sea,,    i  his  harbour,  as  well  as  the  water 


196         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

all  along  the  Aleutian  chain,  is  open  all  the  year  round. 
The  Japan  current,  a  warm  ocean  stream,  flows  eastward 
along  and  around  these  islands,  so  that  while  their  vol- 
canic mountain  summits  are  covered  with  perpetual  snow 
the  lower  slopes  and  valleys  are  beautiful  from  April  to 
November  in  their  covering  of  grass  and  moss  and  great 
variety  of  wild  flowers.  A  noticeable  peculiarity  Is  the  ab- 
sence of  trees.  The  soft,  velvet-looking  surface  is  green 
and  beautiful  and  the  combination  of  snowy  peaks,  some 
of  them  smoking  with  internal  fires,  the  soft  green  of  the 
hills  and  valleys,  and  dark  waters  of  the  ocean,  makes  a 
picture  of  which  the  eye  never  tires.  The  climate  is  mild, 
the  mean  winter  temperature  being  about  thirty  degrees 
above  zero  and  the  average  for  midsummer  only  twenty 
degrees  higher.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  rain  and  snow 
and  fog. 

Unajaska,  on  account  of  its  excellent  harbour,  was  made 
a  base  of  operations  by  the  Russians  from  the  early  days 
of  their  occupation  of  the  northwest  American  coast.  It 
was  an  important  point  in  the  fur-trading  business  a  hun- 
dred years  ago  and  more,  when  the  fox  and  that  most 
valuable  of  fur-bearing  animals,  the  sea  otter,  were 
taken  in  large  numbers,  to  the  practical  extinction  of  the 
latter. 

To  this  island  of  Unalaska  the  senatorial  party  came 
on  the  morning  of  August  5,  and  dropped  anchor  in  the 
bay  twenty-four  hours  after  leaving  the  seal  islands. 
There  are  two  settlements  on  this  harbour,  the  one  of 
most  commercial  importance  being  known  as  Dutch  Har- 


3 
O 


198         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

hour,  where  large  docks  have  been  erected  and  where  are 
the  offices  and  storehouses  of  one  of  the  Alaskan  com- 
mercial companies.  Farther  inland  lies  the  old  Russian 
village  of  L^nalaska  or  Iliuliuk,  which  means  curving 
beach.  Dutch  Harbour  is  important  as  a  coaling  station, 
and  when  we  arrived  we  found  there  the  North  Pacific 
fleet,  consisting  of  the  flagship  New  York,  the  Concord, 
the  Bennington,  the  Marblehead,  and  the  Fortune,  with 
Admiral  Glass  in  command.  The  revenue  cutter  Bear  was 
also  in  the  harbour,  and  soon  after  our  arrival  the  revenue 
cutter  Rush,  bound  for  St.  Michael  and  Nome,  came  in. 
The  Bear  was  awaiting  the  return  of  the  British  ship 
Shearwater  from  the  seal  islands,  with  which  vessel  the 
Bear  alternates  in  guarding  the  sixty-mile  limit  around 
those  islands,  and  the  islands  themselves,  from  poachers. 
The  Shearwater  arrived  before  our  departure,  so  that  the 
harbour  looked  somewhat  as  if  a  naval  review  were  about 
to  take  place. 

Admiral  Glass  and  the  officers  of  his  fleet  had  just 
arrived  from  a  trip  westward  along  the  Aleutian  chain, 
where  they  had  been  engaged  for  several  weeks  in  explor- 
ing and  surveying  the  harbours  and  coast  lines,  making 
soundings  and  picking  out  the  most  available  places  for 
one  or  two  naval  coaling  stations,  which  are  sure  to  be 
of  importance  in  our  naval  operations  on  the  Pacific. 

The  village  of  Unalaska  is  the  objective  of  many 
tourists  as  the  best  place  in  which  to  buy  specimens  of  the 
wonderful  basket-weaving  done  by  the  Aleuts.  Thither, 
for  sale,  are  brought,  by  an  old  German,  who  is  a  sort  of 


THE  ALASKAN  FISHERIES  199 

self-constituted  chief  of  the  ishind,  baskets  and  other 
articles  from  far-off  Attn,  the  most  westerly  of  the 
Aleutian  chain.  In  all  the  basketry  of  the  native  races  of 
our  western  mainland  and  island  possessions  nothing  com- 
pares favourably  with  the  Attn  baskets,  while  for  fine- 
ness and  delicacy  of  construction  the  weaving  of  some  of 
the  smaller  articles  made  by  the  Attn  natives  out  of  wild 
grass  and  root  fibres,  compares  fav^ourably  with  costly 
laces.  The  population  of  Unalaska  is  chiefly  Indian  or 
Creole. 

Above  the  cluster  of  white  cottages  and  stores  that 
front  the  curving  beach  which  gives  to  the  place  its  Indian 
name  of  Iliuliuk,  rise  the  towers  and  dome  of  the  Greek 
church.  The  site  of  this  lingering  vestige  of  Russian 
occupation  is  one  of  the  fairest  spots  in  all  Alaska.  I  saw 
it  first  in  the  evening  of  a  beautiful  day.  High  overhead 
tower  the  heights  of  old  Makushin,  from  whose  summit 
floats  lazily  a  cloud  of  white,  steamy  smoke  like  the 
waste  from  the  tall  chimney  of  a  great  factory  while  the 
workers  rest  and  the  fires  are  banked.  The  mountains  rise 
along  the  west  and  are  silhouetted  sharply  against  the 
glowing  sunset  sky.  The  grey  fog  gathers  in  the  valleys 
and  follows  the  receding  sunlight  slowly  up  the  hillsides. 
At  the  upper  end  of  the  village  the  waters  of  the  bay  are 
contracted  to  a  narrow  channel,  but  a  little  further  on  they 
spread  out  again  and  fill  the  deep  \alicy  in  the  heart  of 
the  island.  Through  the  mists  of  e\ening  which  float 
along  the  surface  of  this  placid  water  gliilcs  tiie  kiak  of  a 
native  propelled  by  his  silent  stroke.   As  one   i^esls  upon 


200         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

the  grassy  hillside  across  the  channel  to  gather  in  the 
beauty  of  the  scene  held  here  in  this  far-away  island  of 
the  Pacific,  the  air  carries  absolutely  no  sound.  Dutch 
Harbour  has  kindly  taken  away  all  the  prose  and  left  to 
dreamy  Unalaska  only  the  poetry  of  existence.  No  ships 
lie  at  her  deserted  wharves;  the  days  of  her  commercial 
importance  are  gone.  And  this  is  true  of  practically  all  the 
places  of  importance  under  Russian  rule.  Unalaska  is  no 
longer  of  consequence  in  the  development  of  Alaska ; 
Kodiak  or  St.  Paul,  at  one  time  the  centre  of  things  Rus- 
sian on  the  American  continent,  retains  much  to  interest 
the  visitor  in  the  way  of  reminders  of  its  one-time  impor- 
tance, but  they  are  all  glories  of  the  past;  Sitka,  which 
after  St.  Paul  became  the  seat  of  the  Russian  government 
of  Alaska  and  which  really  achieved  the  distinction  of 
being  at  one  time  the  most  important  commercial  and  in- 
dustrial centre  on  the  Pacific  coast  of  North  America,  is 
only  a  beautiful,  a  very  beautiful,  reminiscence  and  cuts 
little  figure  in  the  commercial  or  political  Alaska  of  to- 
day. 

From  Unalaska  our  route  lay  along  the  south  coast  of 
the  Alaskan  peninsula.  The  Aleutian  Islands  swing 
down  to  the  51st  parallel  of  latitude,  only  about  3  degrees 
above  Seattle,  but  now  we  turn  northeast  and  before  we 
reach  home  find  ourselves  at  Valdez,  upon  the  latitude  of 
White  Horse  Rapids  on  the  6ist  parallel.  The  North 
Pacific  does  not  always  live  up  to  its  name,  and  withal, 
revenue  cruisers  built  for  speed  are  not  by  any  means  the 
steadiest  boats  on  a  rolling  sea.   I  am  violating  no  con- 


fc^ 


^ 


202         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

fidences  committed  to  me  and  making  no  confessions,  but 
neither  the  seal  steaks  and  hvers  brought  from  St.  Paul 
Island  nor  the  codfish  taken  Sunday  morning  on  a  cod 
bank  off  the  Semidi  Islands  appealed  very  strongly  to  any 
number  of  the  party.  They  say  the  table  was  not  set  that 
day  in  the  captain's  cabin  where  the  senators  were  quar- 
tered, and  the  racks  on  the  table  down  in  the  wardroom 
were  not  filled  with  the  dishes  of  many  except  the  officers, 
and  one  or  two  of  them  seemed  to  be  dieting. 

Time  was  when  the  fur  trade  was  the  chief  source  of 
Alaska's  wealth.  But  that  declined.  Then  gold  began  to 
be  discovered  and  gold  mining  absorbed  all  attention 
directed  toward  Alaska,  and  it  is  destined  to  be  much 
more  important  than  it  is  now.  But  unless  you  are  much 
better  informed  with  regard  to  Alaskan  affairs  than  I 
was  before  I  went  there,  you  may  not  be  prepared  for  the 
fact  that  the  fisheries  of  Alaska  employ  more  capital,  and 
that  their  annual  product  amounts  to  as  much,  and  some- 
times half  as  much  again,  as  the  gold  output. 

The  salmon  fisheries  of  the  Columbia  and  Eraser 
rivers  and  of  Puget  Sound  are  well  known  and  generally 
regarded  as  the  principal  source  of  the  salmon  supply, 
but  the  fact  is  that  the  whole  coast  line  of  British  Colum- 
bia, of  southeastern  and  southern  Alaska  and  clear  around 
to  the  Yukon  River  is  more  or  less  plentifully  stocked  with 
these  most  nutritious  of  all  food  fishes,  the  king,  the  red 
and  other  varieties  of  salmon.  Wherever  there  are  streams 
running  from  Inland  snow-fed  lakes  into  the  sea,  on  the 
islands  as  well  as  on  the  mainland,  the  salmon  congregate 


THE  ALASKAN  FISHERIES  203 

at  the  breeding  time  and  sometimes  literally  choke  the 
mouths  of  the  fresh-water  courses  on  their  way  to  the 
spawning  grounds. 

It  was  on  the  morning  of  August  10  that  the  McCul- 
loch  dropped  anchor  off  the  mouth  of  Karluk  River  on 
the  north  shore  of  Kadiak  Island,  in  a  fog  so  dense  that 
it  was  impossible  to  see  a  ship's  length.  The  fog  whistle 
was  answered  by  the  ringing  of  the  bells  and  the  shrill 
whistles  of  small  steam  craft,  and  as  the  fog  lifted  a  few 
minutes  later  it  revealed  the  large  buildings  of  the  Alaska 
Packing  association  at  what  has  been  heretofore  the  larg- 
est salmon-packing  station  in  Alaska. 

The  seines  had  been  set  about  the  mouth  of  Karluk 
River  in  the  early  morning,  and  when  we  went  ashore 
after  an  early  breakfast  we  found  the  fishermen  drawing 
in  their  nets.  Where  salmon  fishing  is  done  on  a  large 
scale,  as  it  is  at  Karluk,  most  of  the  fish  are  taken  in 
seines.  A  net,  nine  or  ten  feet  wide,  and  two  or  three 
thousand  feet  long,  is  loaded  on  a  scow,  towed  by  a 
steam  tug.  The  tug  makes  a  circuit  out  from  the  shore 
enclosing  a  large  area  opposite  the  mouth  of  Karluk 
River,  paying  out  the  seine  as  It  goes  and  returning  to  the 
shore,  ten  or  fifteen  rods  from  the  point  from  which  it 
started  out.  One  end  ol  the  seine  is  made  fast  while  the 
other  is  attached  to  a  steam  windlass  and  drawn  slowly 
to  shore.  As  it  is  brought  in  it  is  attended  by  fisher- 
men in  boats  to  see  that  it  does  not  become  entangled  on 
the  rocks  and  broken,  and  w  luii  it  has  been  ilraw  11  in  so  as 
to  narrow  the  enclosed  area  to  a  surface  ol   two  or  three 


204         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

hundred  square  feet,  large  fishing  boats  are  brought 
alongside  and  the  salmon  are  dipped  up  with  huge  baskets 
into  the  boats. 

The  draught  which  was  loaded  that  morning  into  the 
fishing  boats  was  a  good  one  for  a  season  which  had  not 
been  particularly  satisfactory.  The  number  taken  out  of 
that  net  was  variously  estimated  from  12,000  to  17,000. 
And  what  a  wriggling,  squirming,  slippery  mass,  as  they 
fill  three  square-built  boats  8  feet  wide  and  18  feet  long  to 
a  depth  of  2  feet!  The  fish  in  this  draught  are  of  average 
size,   15  to  24  Inches  long. 

The  loaded  boats  are  taken  to  the  cannery,  where  the 
fish  are  emptied  into  large  bins  convenient  to  the  machin- 
ery employed  In  canning.  The  first  process,  of  course,  is 
the  cleaning,  and  this  is  nearly  all  done  by  machinery. 
As  the  fish  are  brought  on  carriers  from  the  bin  they  are 
deposited  on  tables  where  men  called  "  butchers  "  rapidly 
and  skilfully  cut  off  the  heads,  fins  and  tails.  A  good 
"  butcher  "  can  handle  250  to  300  salmon  an  hour.  They 
pass  from  this  table  on  belt  carriers  to  a  machine  which 
treats  the  fish  a  good  deal  as  a  corn-sheller  treats  the  corn- 
cob, except  that  it  not  only  removes  the  scales,  but  cuts  the 
fish  open  and  removes  the  entrails.  A  strong  stream  of 
water  is  thrown  upon  the  fish  in  this  process  so  as  to  wash 
it  out  thoroughly,  but  to  make  sure  of  a  clean  job,  and  that 
no  fish  unfit  for  market  are  packed,  the  fish  go  next  to  the 
hands  of  cleaners,  w^ho  inspect  them  and  finish  them  up 
ready  for  the  cutting  machine. 

From  the  cleaner  they  are  carried  to  machines  where 


_3 


2o6         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

the  fish  is  laid  crosswise  on  an  ascending  belt,  or  a  series 
of  parallel  belts,  travelling  side  by  side.  Between  these 
belts  knives  revolve  rapidly,  and  as  the  fish  are  carried 
up  on  the  belts  they  are  cut  in  sections  the  length  of  the 
cans  in  which  they  are  packed.  They  come  from  the  cut- 
ting machine  to  another  ingenious  contrivance  which  car- 
ries the  cans  one  at  a  time  to  a  point  opposite  a  rammer, 
which  forces  the  fish  into  the  can  in  sufficient  quantity  to 
fill  it  at  one  stroke,  after  which  the  lid  is  placed  in  position 
by  machinery  and  the  head  end  of  the  can  rolled  through 
molten  solder  in  such  a  way  as  to  seal  it.  All  this  process 
of  cutting  the  fish,  filling  the  can,  putting  on  the  cap  and 
soldering  it  is  done  by  machinery  at  the  rate  of  50  to  60 
cans  a  minute. 

The  fish  are  packed  raw.  The  cans  are  placed  in  large 
steam  cooking  tanks,  w^here  they  are  heated  to  a  tempera- 
ture of  212  degrees.  Here  they  remain  for  forty-five 
minutes  to  an  hour.  When  they  are  taken  out,  each  can 
is  punctured  with  a  small  pricking  mallet,  to  allow  the 
gases  and  steam  generated  in  the  first  cooking  process  to 
escape.  The  aperture  is  then  soldered  up  and  the  cans  are 
returned  to  another  set  of  ovens  or  steam  tanks,  where 
they  are  subjected  to  a  heat  of  240  degrees  for  another 
hour.  After  this  second  cooking  process  they  are  set  out 
and  allowed  to  cool.  They  are  then  rinsed  clean  with  cold 
water  and  are  subjected  to  the  final  test  as  to  w^hether 
they  have  been  securely  sealed  or  not.  This  is  determined 
by  tapping  each  can  on  the  end  with  a  little  bar  of  iron. 
The  Confucian  who  does  this   (the  cannery  employes  are 


THE  ALASKAN  FISHERIES  207 

mainly  Chinese)  has  become  so  expert  that  he  can  tell  by 
the  sound  whether  the  can  is  perfectly  sealed  or  not.  If  it 
is  not  air-tight  it  is  set  aside  and  the  leak  found  and  closed 
up.  A  brilliant  label  is  attached,  the  cans  are  packed  in 
cases  containing  forty-eight  cans  to  the  case,  and  they  are 
ready  for  the  market.  Before  the  cans  are  filled  with  the 
raw  fish  a  measured  amount  of  salt  is  deposited  in  each 
by  a  simple  mechanical  device  which  salts  a  whole  trayful 
at  one  movement. 

Every  well-equipped  salmon  cannery  in  Alaska  manu- 
factures its  own  cans  and  makes  the  wooden  boxes  or  cases 
in  which  the  salmon  are  shipped  to  market. 

The  salmon  appear  around  the  outlets  of  fresh-water 
streams  only  during  the  summer  season — through  June, 
July  and  August.  When  the  season  approaches  the  can- 
ning companies  of  Alaska  gather  up  in  San  Francisco, 
Seattle  and  other  coast  towns  men  who  furnish  the  most 
profitable  labour  for  this  business.  At  Karluk  the  fishing 
is  done  largely  by  Italians.  For  the  three  months  of  the 
fishing  season  they  receive  on  the  average  about  $350,  to- 
gether with  their  board  and  lodging,  and  their  trans- 
portation to  and  from  the  fishing  grounds. 

Not  all  the  salmon  are  canned.  1  here  is  a  market  for 
salted  salmon,  particularly  in  Japan  and  China,  where  the 
consumer  is  not  as  particular  as  to  quality  as  the  American 
or  European  customer.  There  are  several  varieties  ol 
salmon,  the  less  desirable  being  known  as  the  pink  salmon 
antl  the  humpback.  These  arc  salted,  drietl  ami  packed  in 
barrels    for    export.    Driiil    salmon    is    the    form    also    in 


2o8         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

which  the  Indian  prefers  the  large  quantities  which  he 
consumes.  The  fish  which  he  takes  for  his  own  use  are 
cut  open,  boned  and  shished  into  sections  about  an  inch 
wide  so  as  to  open  up  the  flesh  and  expose  it  to  the  air, 
and  hung  up  to  dry.  After  exposure  in  this  way  for  a 
week  or  ten  days  it  is  smoked  until  nearly  black  and  is 
ready  for  winter  use.  Dried  salmon  dipped  in  seal  oil 
constitutes  the  principal  part  of  the  Alaska  Indian's  win- 
ter food  and  is  esteemed  as  highly  by  him  as  is  the  beel 
roast  by  the  beef-eating  Englishman. 

Very  little  is  known  about  the  history  of  the  salmon. 
It  is  known  that  it  is  hatched  in  fresh  water;  that  in  the 
course  of  time  it  finds  its  way  to  the  sea.  But  where  it 
goes,  and  what  has  been  its  manner  of  life  during  the  five 
or  six  years  which  are  generally  supposed  to  intervene 
before  it  returns  to  spawn  in  soft  water,  no  one  has  yet 
been  able  to  discover.  But  at  the  age  of  probably  six  or 
seven  years  both  males  and  females  swarm  about  the 
mouths  of  fresh-water  streams,  guided  by  an  instinct  which 
compels  them  to  seek  the  sources  of  these  fresh-water 
streams  for  their  spawning  grounds.  As  soon  as  the 
salmon  leaves  the  salt  water  and  enters  the  fresh  it  begins 
to  deteriorate.  The  absence  of  the  saline  property  seems 
to  be  fatal  to  his  existence.  The  flesh  begins  to  rot;  the 
males  particularly  turn  a  purplish-red,  with  great  splotches 
of  grey  on  their  backs  and  sides;  their  noses  appear  to 
be  covered  with  a  white  fungous  growth,  which  is  only 
decomposition  setting  in,  and  unless  they  reach  their  des- 
tination  within    a   reasonable   time   they   die   before   the 


w 


2IO         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

spawning  process.  When  they  spawn  the  male  digs  a 
little  depression  in  the  sand  with  his  nose  and  the  eggs 
are  deposited  in  it.  But  where  thousands  of  salmon  are 
spawning  on  the  same  gravel  bed  the  same  season  the  eggs 
first  deposited  are  often  disturbed,  and  it  is  estimated  that 
not  one  in  ten  ever  matures  under  natural  conditions.  The 
spawning  salmon  rarely  if  ever  find  their  way  back  to 
salt  water,  but  die  in  the  fresh  water  to  which  they  have 
come  to  lay  their  eggs.  Wonderful  stories  are  told  of  the 
feats  performed  by  the  salmon  in  ascending  rapids  and 
cascades  in  order  to  reach  the  headwaters  where  their 
instincts  impel  them  to  go.  Where  the  volume  of  falling 
water  is  sufficient  they  are  said  to  swim  almost  perpen- 
dicularly for  several  feet,  while  a  leap  of  two  or  three 
feet  over  an  obstruction  is  no  trick  at  all  for  these  powerful 
swimmers. 

Although  the  law  provides  that  salmon  fishing  must 
be  suspended  for  thirty-six  hours  out  of  every  week  in 
order  to  give  the  fish  a  chance  to  go  up  to  the  spawning 
ground,  where  the  canning  companies  are  taking  fish  in 
large  quantities  at  the  mouths  of  the  best  streams,  nature 
cannot  be  relied  upon  to  provide  for  the  perpetuation 
of  the  species  and  the  Government  has  required  by  law 
that  all  canneries  shall  maintain  hatcheries  and  put  into 
fresh  water  every  year  ten  fry,  as  the  young  fish  are 
called,  for  every  full-grown  fish  canned.  Some  of  the 
hatcheries  comply  with  this  law  and  some  do  not.  At 
Karluk  there  is  a  large  hatchery,  the  establishment  of 
which    must    have    cost   the    Alaska    Packing    association 


THE  ALASKAN  FISHERIES  211 

from  $50,000  to  $60,000,  while  the  maintenance  probably 
adds  another  $10,000  annually. 

The  salmon  canneries  of  Alaska  pay  to  the  Govern- 
ment, annually,  in  the  form  of  a  tax  of  4  cents  on  each 
case,  about  $90,000,  and  it  is  the  judgment  of  the  fish 
commission  as  well  as  the  packers  themselves  that  the 
fair  and  most  effectual  method  of  perpetuating  the  salmon 
is  for  the  Government  to  establish  hatcheries  and  main- 
tain them  out  of  the  fund  derived  from  this  tax,  or  from 
a  heavier  one  if  necessary,  as  this  tax  amounts  to  only 
I  per  cent,  on  the  value  of  the  output.  This  would  not 
only  distribute  the  burden  of  maintenance  equally  upon  all 
the  packers,  but  it  would  insure  the  propagation  of  the  fish 
by  the  most  scientific  methods  and  the  perpetuation  of  the 
most  valuable  species.  As  to  the  necessity  of  artificial 
propagation,  there  can  hardly  be  any  doubt.  So  many 
ways  are  found  to  avoid  the  spirit  while  complying  with 
the  letter  of  the  law  with  reference  to  the  taking  of  the 
salmon  that  it  cannot  be  hoped  that  this  valuable  natural 
asset  will  not  be  materially  affected  if  the  perpetuation  of 
it  is  left  to  the  processes  of  nature  and  the  only  half- 
observed  requirements  as  to  private  hatcheries.  The 
Government  is  giving  serious  attention  to  this  phase  of  the 
matter  and  during  the  summer  of  1903  sent  out  the  Al- 
iiatross,  a  ship  equipped  for  the  service  of  the  fish  com- 
mission, bearing  a  corps  of  fish  experts  for  the  purpose 
chiefly  of  imestigating  the  condition  of  the  salmon  niul 
f)th(.r  fisheries  of  the  Alaskan  coast. 

\  he  capital  stock  ol   the  companies  em|)l()yed  in  pack- 


212         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

ing  salmon  in  Alaska  is  about  $25,000,000,  and  the  value 
of  their  plants  $6,500,000.  The  pack  for  1903  is  esti- 
mated closely  at  2,204,423  cases,  valued  at  $8,500,000. 
The  average  annual  product  of  the  salmon  fisheries  exceeds 
the  original  first  cost  of  Alaska  by  a  million  dollars,  and 
the  total  product  since  Alaska  became  an  American  pos- 
session will  exceed  seven  times  the  amount  paid  by  Mr. 
Seward  for  the  entire  district, 

Alaska  has  other  valuable  varieties  of  fish,  which, 
however,  have  not  yet  been  developed  to  proportions 
corresponding  with  the  salmon  industry.  Halibut,  one  of 
the  most  delicately  flavoured  fish,  is  found  all  along  the 
coast,  but  the  principal  fishing  for  this  species  is  done  in 
Wrangell  Narrows,  where  the  glacial  ice  is  picked  up 
as  it  floats  by  and  used  for  packing  the  fish  for  the 
Eastern  market.  Cod  are  found  over  a  large  area  and 
will  eventually  attract  more  attention  than  they  do  now. 
Herring,  red  snappers,  flounders,  black  bass,  many  kinds 
of  trout,  greylings,  eels,  shrimps,  crabs  and  clams,  but  no 
oysters,  abound  in  Alaskan  waters. 


X 

TRANSPORTATION— THE   KEY  TO  ALASKA'S 
LOCKED-UP  WEALTH 

/ALTHOUGH  the  traveller  through  Alaska  cannot 
/-\  escape  the  evidences  that  he  is  on  the  far 
"*"  -^  frontier;  although  the  fact  that  the  American 
occupation  is  recent,  that  the  population  is  sparse  and  that 
we  are  just  at  the  beginning  of  things  in  Alaska,  is  una\oid- 
able,  one  is  occasionally  reminded  of  a  prior  occupation 
and  is  almost  made  to  feel  as  if  he  were  moving  among 
the  ruins  of  an  extinct  civilisation.  Vestiges  of  the  earlier 
occupation  are  encountered  here  and  there,  and  add  a  pecu- 
liar zest  to  the  pleasures  which  the  traveller  may  derive 
from  a  journey  over  the  long  and  sometimes  lonesome 
paths  that  lead  to  the  commercial  centres  and  among  the 
scenic  attractions  of  that  wonderful  country. 

It  was  its  historic  character  and  its  importance  in  the 
period  of  the  Russian  occupation  that  excited  our  chief 
interest  in  old  St.  Paul,  or  Kodiak,  as  it  is  commonly 
known  now,  when  the  senatorial  party  arrived  there  on  the 
morning  of  August  12,  in  the  course  of  their  long  Alaskan 
tour.  Kodiak  is  on  the  south  shore  of  Kadiak  Island. 
A  singular  inconsistency  will  he  ()hser\ed  in  the  sjiclliiig 
of  the  name  of  the  island  and  the  name  of  the  village 

213 


214         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

which  custom  now  sanctions.  But  what  terrible  things  the 
gutturals  and  the  aspirates  of  the  Russians  and  the  natives 
have  done  for  the  place  nomenclature  of  the  Alaskan  coast, 
is  not  even  remotely  suggested  by  this  name,  so  com- 
paratively smooth  and  pronounceable,  notwithstanding  its 
rough  edges.  Once  the  seat  of  authority  in  Russian 
America,  Kodiak  retains  some  of  the  evidences  of  its 
commercial  and  military  importance  of  a  hundred  years 
ago.  Among  these  relics  of  its  past  are  its  Greek  church 
and  the  immense  log  warehouses,  whose  massive  con- 
struction has  withstood  the  lapse  of  years  and  prom- 
ises to  stand  many  decades  more  as  a  monument  to  the 
past. 

Kodiak  is  one  of  the  most  attractive  spots  scenically  on 
the  south  Alaskan  coast,  but  is  no  longer  of  commercial 
importance,  although,  since  the  American  occupation,  it 
has  been  one  of  the  most  flourishing  trading  posts  of  the 
Alaska  Commercial  company.  It  was  of  interest  to  the 
senatorial  committee  chiefly  because  of  the  experiment 
now  being  made  there  in  live-stock  raising.  Three  years 
ago  a  company  w^ith  headquarters  in  Seattle  placed  several 
hundred  sheep  on  the  island  in  the  expectation  that  in 
this  mild  climate  these  animals  could  make  their  own  way 
the  year  round  without  any  attention.  The  experiment 
under  those  conditions  was  not  altogether  successful. 
There  is  an  abundance  of  forage,  but  the  island  is  cut 
by  deep  ravines  in  which  there  is  a  heavy  growth  of  small 
shrubbery  in  which  the  sheep  often  become  entangled 
unless  they  are  attended;  and  the  spring  season  is  so  wet 


Oh 


O 


u 


2i6         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

and  the  air  Is  so  cold  and  damp  that,  left  without  shelter, 
the  young  lambs  perished  by  the  hundreds.  The  same 
people,  however,  not  satisfied  with  their  first  experiment, 
brought  to  the  island  for  their  second  trial  7,500  sheep  and 
500  head  of  cattle.  It  is  their  plan  to  provide  shelter  for 
the  animals  at  the  time  the  young  are  born,  and  with  this 
reasonable  provision  the  experiment  seems  likely  to  prove 
a  success.  It  is  not  practicable,  however,  to  turn  loose 
either  cattle  or  sheep  on  this  island  without  attendance,  as 
they  wander  over  wide  areas  and  cannot  be  rounded  up  as 
they  can  on  the  plains  or  even  among  the  foothills  in 
Montana.  The  animals  are  also  exposed  to  the  depreda- 
tions of  a  particularly  large  and  ferocious  species  of 
brown  bear  which  inhabits  the  island  in  considerable 
numbers.  There  is  reason  to  expect,  however,  that  with 
proper  care  and  at  a  moderate  expense  the  extensive  grass 
lands  on  the  lower  levels  will  sustain  large  herds  of  both 
sheep  and  cattle,  and  that  the  industry  will  be  highly 
profitable. 

On  these  islands  off  the  coast  of  southwest  Alaska  a 
new  and  peculiar  industry  is  found  in  the  experimental 
stage.  Fox-ranching  is  an  effort  to  restore  an  important 
natural  resource.  At  an  expense  of  $1.50  a  year  for  feed 
for  one  of  these  animals,  skins  are  obtained  from  the  blue 
and  the  silver-grey  foxes  valued  at  from  $20  to  $50. 
The  skins  are  rare  now  and  more  valuable  than  the  much- 
prized  pelts  of  the  fur  seal.  Some  of  the  animals  for 
stocking  these  ranches  have  been  brought  from  far-off 
Attu  at  the  extreme  western  end  of  the  Aleutian  chain. 


THE  KEY  TO  ALASKA'S  WEALTH      217 

Whether  this  unique  industry  is  to  be  successful  and  how 
profitable  it  is  likely  to  become  have  not  yet  been  satis- 
factorily shown. 

From  Kodiak  our  course  lay  northeast  315  miles  to 
Valdez,  at  the  upper  end  of  Prince  William  Sound.  Val- 
dez  is  the  future  great  city  of  Alaska.  Its  name  suggests 
the  presence  of  the  Spaniard.  The  Spaniards,  becoming 
jealous  of  the  spread  of  Russian  domination  in  the  North 
Pacific,  sent  an  expedition  up  into  these  waters  in  1790, 
which  penetrated  to  the  head  of  Prince  William  Sound 
and  conferred  upon  the  great  glacier,  upon  the  front  of 
w^hich  the  most  ambitious  town  in  Alaska  now  stands,  the 
name  which  the  sanguine  inhabitants  of  the  town  think 
has  something  in  it. 

Prince  William  Sound  penetrates  the  mainland  for  a 
distance  of  75  miles  and  the  ride  up  this  grand  estuary 
affords  a  view  of  the  finest  scenery  on  the  whole  Alaskan 
coast.  Snow-capped  mountains  rise  precipitously  on  either 
side  from  whose  white  summits  unnumbered  glaciers  slide 
slowly  and  silently  into  the  valleys  between,  while  from 
beneath  these  immense  fields  of  ice  and  snow  beautiful 
cascades  break  down  over  the  mountain  fronts  and  leap 
from  ledges  into  the  sea  like  showers  of  molten  silver. 
Only  one  glacier,  the  Columbian,  delivers  its  frozen 
stream  into  the  sea,  but  its  cold  and  glittering  front,  white 
streaked  with  deep  blue,  rises  like  a  solid  wall  straight 
across  the  valley  through  which  it  emerges  from  the  moun- 
tain slopes  behintl.  'I  he  air  is  moist  with  the  constant 
melting  of  the  snow,  and  even  when  the  skies  are  cloud- 


2i8         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

less,  is  lilled  with  a  sott,  blue  haze  which  adds  an  inde- 
scribable charm  to  the  scene — a  sort  of  Inness  impression- 
ist effect  which  the  memory  will  recall  with  never-failing 
delight. 

Valdez  is  a  town  of  i,ooo  inhabitants  built  on  a  moraine 
lying  across  the  foot  of  a  great  glacier  which  comes  down 
within  four  miles  of  the  tow^n.  As  one  looks  up  toward 
that  great  field  of  ice  now  resting  with  its  foot  against 
the  moraine,  he  can  be  pardoned  if  he  should  indulge  in 
a  moment's  speculation  as  to  what  would  happen  if  that 
big  glacier  should  slip  a  cog  some  night  and  shove  the 
moraine  out  into  the  harbour.  You  know  what  the  boy 
philosopher  said,  that  "  just  'cause  nothin'  ain't  ever  got 
you  'tain't  no  sign  nothin'  ain't  ever  goin'  to  git  you,"  but 
the  people  of  Valdez  aren't  afraid.  Their  principal  busi- 
ness just  now  is  waiting  for  something  to  turn  up  and  they 
go  on  working  at  it  without  any  apprehension  about  the 
glacier.  The  something  they  are  waiting  for  to  turn  up 
is  a  railroad.  They  have  got  there  first  and  they  are  hold- 
ing what  they  regard  as  the  key  to  the  situation — the  most 
practicable  and  perhaps  the  only  available  open-all-the- 
year-round  port  from  which  a  railroad  can  be  built  from 
the  south  coast  of  Alaska  to  the  interior.  Their  hopes  are 
centred  upon  the  construction  of  a  railroad  from  that 
point,  northeast  through  the  Copper  River  valley,  across 
the  valley  of  the  Tanana,  through  the  Forty-Mile  district 
to  Eagle  on  the  Yukon.  In  1899  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment sent  a  military  expedition  into  this  country  to 
explore  and  open  a  military  trail  which  should  be  made  a 


> 


220         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

mail  route  from  Valdez  to  Eagle.  Over  that  route  mail 
is  carried  weekly  during  the  summer  on  pack  horses. 

Hon.  John  G.  Brady,  Governor  of  Alaska,  when  asked 
what  Alaska  needed  most,  replied:  "The  great  essential 
to  the  development  of  Alaska  is  transportation."  And 
this  is  the  fact  which  impresses  the  student  of  Alaska's 
future  more  than  anything  else.  He  is  especially  impressed 
with  this  thought  after  having  visited  Yukon  territory 
on  the  Canadian  side,  and  having  seen  there  what  has  been 
done  by  the  Dominion  Government  for  the  development 
of  its  most  northern  possession  by  the  construction  of 
wagon  roads.  One  of  the  most  important  branches  of  the 
organisation  of  that  territory  is  the  department  of  roads. 
The  British  Yukon  is  young  compared  with  our  district 
of  Alaska.  Prior  to  the  discoveries  on  the  Klondike  in 
1896  and  1897  there  was  practically  no  settlement  and  no 
development  in  that  country.  But  during  the  last  fiv^e  or 
six  years,  according  to  Mr.  S.  A.  D.  Bertrand,  territorial 
superintendent  of  public  works  and  buildings,  at  Dawson, 
there  has  been  expended  in  the  Yukon  territory  $1,030,- 
118  in  the  building  of  wagon  roads.  This  represents  the 
first  cost  of  875  miles  of  roads  and  winter  trails,  one- 
fourth  of  which  is  graded  and  surfaced  wagon  roads  on 
which  heavy  loads  may  be  drawn  by  teams  of  from  two  to 
ten  or  twelve  horses  and  over  which  it  is  possible  now  to 
move  heav^y  mining  machinery  at  any  time  of  the  year  as 
easily  as  it  could  be  drawn  over  the  roads  of  central  New 
York. 

When  the  senatorial  committee,  while  in  Dawson,  were 


THE  KEY  TO  ALASKA'S  WEALTH      221 

invited  by  United  States  Consul  McGowan  and  General 
Manager  Washburn  of  the  Northern  Commercial  com- 
pany to  visit  the  mines  on  Bonanza  and  Eldorado  creeks, 
one  important  end  to  be  accomplished  by  that  trip  was  to 
show  to  the  senators  what  the  Yukon  territory,  by  the  aid 
of  the  Dominion  Government,  had  done  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  country  in  building  roads  and  cheapening 
transportation  through  the  mining  districts.  The  drive 
of  35  or  40  miles  was  made  in  stages  drawn  by  4  horses 
and  carrying  12  passengers  to  the  wagon.  There  is  no 
place  in  Alaska  where  this  performance  could  have  been 
repeated.  The  method  pursued  in  the  Yukon  is  briefly 
this :  The  territorial  government  determines  where  roads 
shall  be  built  and  makes  an  estimate  of  the  cost.  This 
estimate  is  presented  to  the  Dominion  Parliament  at 
Ottawa  and  an  appropriation  is  made  for  the  purpose. 
They  do  not  wait  in  the  British  Yukon  until  all  the  burden 
of  settlement  has  been  borne  by  the  people  at  the  great 
expense  which  the  absence  of  passable  roads  implies,  but 
whenever  a  discovery  is  made  which  promises  to  be  of 
importance  and  gives  evidence  of  permanence,  engineers 
are  sent  out  to  survey  a  route  for  a  wagon  road,  and  meii 
are  put  at  work  at  once  on  its  construction.  The  result  is 
that  the  great  mining  district  known  as  the  Klondike  is 
covered  with  a  network  of  excellent  roads  reaching  back 
from  the  Yukon  for  a  distance  of  sixty  miles.  Originally 
conditions  here  were  substantially  those  which  obtain  in 
Alaska  to-day  so  far  as  transportation  is  concerned. 
A  member  of  a  firm  engaged  in  freighting  over  these 


222         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

roads  from  Dawson  is  authority  for  the  statement  that  in 
1898,  prior  to  the  construction  of  these  roads,  freighting 
by  pack  horses  for  a  distance  of  15  to  25  miles  was  done 
at  the  rate  of  15  cents  a  pound,  or  $300  a  ton.  Now 
the  same  freight  is  transported  25  to  50  miles  for  a  cent 
a  pound  or  less  in  ton  lots,  and  in  smaller  quantities  for  a 
cent  and  a  half  a  pound.  This  firm  runs  stages  290  miles 
a  day  over  these  various  routes  and  daily  transportation 
may  be  had  for  passengers  and  freight  between  Dawson 
and  all  points  in  the  Klondike  region. 

It  is  the  estimate  of  this  firm  that  the  cost  of  living  in 
the  Klondike  camps,  taking  all  things  into  account,  but 
crediting  the  reduction  chiefly  to  good  roads,  has  been  re- 
duced to  one-fourth  what  it  was  five  years  ago  before  these 
roads  were  built.  What  this  means  to  the  development  of 
the  country  can  scarcely  be  overstated.  Compare,  for  in- 
stance, the  cost  of  living  where  freights  for  supplies  for 
a  distance  of  20  to  40  miles  ranges  from  a  cent  to  a  cent 
and  a  half  a  pound,  with  the  conditions  described  by 
Consul  McGowan  on  Chicken  Creek,  100  miles  away,  on 
the  American  side.  Freights  from  Seattle  to  Eagle,  which 
is  as  near  to  Chicken  Creek  as  is  Dawson,  are  substantially 
the  same  as  to  Dawson,  but  there  are  no  roads  of  any 
kind  between  Eagle  on  the  American  side  and  the  impor- 
tant mining  camps  in  the  Forty-Mile  district,  of  which 
Chicken  Creek  is  a  part.  And  while  only  a  cent  to  a  cent 
and  a  half  a  pound  must  be  added  for  freight  charges  from 
Dawson  to  camps  forty  miles  away  in  the  Klondike,  the 
contrast  between  Dawson  prices  and  Chicken  Creek  prices 


It  Snows  in  Valdez 


224         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

shows  what  the  wagon  roads  have  done  for  the  miner  on 
the  British  side. 

For  instance,  in  the  spring  of  1902  when  flour  was  $7 
a  hundred  at  Dawson,  it  was  $32  a  hundred  on  Chicken 
Creek.  Hams  and  bacon,  when  25  cents  a  pound  in  Daw- 
son, cost  50  cents  on  Chicken  Creek;  condensed  cream  $10 
a  case  in  Dawson,  $22  on  Chicken  Creek;  potatoes  6  1-2 
cents  a  pound  in  Dawson,  25  cents  on  Chicken  Creek; 
onions  12  1-2  cents  a  pound  in  Dawson,  30  to  32  cents  on 
Chicken  Creek;  beef  in  carcass,  75  cents  a  pound;  eggs, 
$35  a  case  in  summer.  On  all  canned  goods  there  was  an 
advance  of  65  per  cent,  on  Dawson  prices  at  Chicken 
Creek  and  this  difference  is  chargeable  chiefly  to  the  cost 
of  freighting  the  last  100  miles.  The  trade  of  this  entire 
Forty-Mile  district  should  be  handled  from  Eagle,  on  the 
American  side,  but  it  is  practically  monopolised  from  Daw- 
son by  the  aid  of  a  wagon  road  built  from  Dawson  west- 
ward to  the  boundary  line.  Dawson  would  have  wagon 
roads  all  through  the  Forty-Mile  district  if  it  were  all 
on  British  territory. 

But  the  Forty-Mile  district  does  not  by  any  means  pre- 
sent the  worst  conditions  with  respect  to  transportation. 
Here  is  a  list  of  prices  for  supplies  in  the  region  of  Copper 
Centre,  about  seventy-five  miles  inland  from  Valdez.  All 
supplies  must  be  carried  over  the,  military  trail  on  pack 
horses,  and  a  Minneapolis  man  who  has  recently  visited 
that  section  reports  the  following  scale  of  prices :  Hay, 
$600  a  ton;  oats,  35  cents  a  pound;  flour,  35  cents  a 
pound;  potatoes,  $11.20  a  bushel;  butter,  $1   a  pound; 


THE  KEY  TO  ALASKA'S  WEALTH      225 

roast  beef,  in  cans,  $1.25  a  pound;  condensed  milk,  75 
cents  a  package;  ham  and  bacon,  65  cents  a  pound;  rice, 
40  cents  a  pound;  baking  powder,  $1  a  can;  pepper,  $1  a 
can;  soap,  50  cents  a  cake;  dried  fruit,  60  cents  a  pound; 
tomatoes  and  corn,  $1  a  can;  oil,  $3.50  a  gallon;  window 
glass,  10  X  12,  $1.50  a  pane;  horseshoes,  $2.50  apiece; 
tin  pails,  $2.50;  coffee  pot,  $2,50;  wash  tub,  $8;  hand 
saw,  $12;  a  joint  of  stove  pipe,  $1. 

It  should  be  understood,  too,  that  transportation  to 
Valdez,  the  point  of  departure  from  the  coast,  is  cheap, 
and  that  prices  are  not  exorbitant  there.  In  fact,  the  ad- 
vance over  Seattle  prices  at  Alaska  coast  points  is  very 
moderate.  It  is  this  item  of  transportation  from  the  coast 
to  the  interior  which  makes  living  there  so  expensive,  and, 
indeed,  prohibitive,  unless  the  miner  is  working  in  rich 
gravel  and  taking  out  large  returns  for  his  labour  every 
day. 

Another  illustration  is  furnished  by  Judge  D.  A.  Mc- 
Kenzie,  United  States  commissioner  at  Coldfoot  on  the 
Koyukuk.  The  Koyukuk  is  navigated  by  small  boats  a 
distance  of  600  miles  north  from  the  Yukon  Ri\er  and 
Coldfoot  is  one  of  the  most  northern  settlements  in 
Alaska.  There  are,  however,  about  400  whites  in  that 
region  engaged  in  mining.  Freight  from  Seattle  or  San 
PVancisco  must  go  up  by  Dutch  1  larbour,  north  to  St. 
Michael,  and  up  the  Yukon  and  the  Koyukuk,  and  the 
rate  is  over  $300  a  ton.  When  it  gets  to  CoKiloot  it  iiuist 
be  distributed  back  on  the  cix-eks  among  the  miners  a(  an 
added  expense  of  15  U)  20  cents  a  ))ounii,  making  the  tola! 


226         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

charge  for  transportation  reach  the  rate  of  about  $600  a 
ton.  Of  course,  no  country  can  be  occupied  where  the 
expense  of  living  is  so  great  that  does  not  produce  liberally 
in  gold.  Some  claims  in  that  section  pay  from  $115  to 
$125  per  man  for  ten  hours'  work,  and  large  quantities 
of  low-grade  gravel  are  handled  at  from  $15  to  $20  per 
man  per  day. 

Such  facts  as  these  explain  better  than  anything  else 
the  retarded  development  of  Alaska  and  the  more  rapid 
and  advanced  development  on  the  British  side.  Hundreds 
of  claims  are  worked  on  the  British  side  at  a  moderate 
profit  which  could  not  be  worked  at  all  if  the  expense  of 
living  there  were  as  great  as  on  the  American  side.  There 
is  nothing  in  the  natural  conditions,  however,  which  should 
give  greater  impetus  to  the  mining  development  on  the 
British  side  than  on  the  American.  On  the  contrary,  aside 
from  a  few  rich  claims  in  the  Klondike  which  can  be  easily 
matched  on  the  Seward  Peninsula,  the  attractions  for  the 
miner  on  the  American  side  in  such  districts  as  Fairbanks, 
Forty-Mile,  the  Upper  Koyukuk,  the  American  Creek, 
Nome  and  Council  City  districts,  and  probably  others, 
are  just  as  great  as  on  the  British  side.  In  fact,  outside 
the  Klondike  region  itself  the  British  Yukon  has  nothing 
as  yet  to  offer  equal  to  any  of  the  districts  named  on  the 
American   side. 

As  is  generally  understood,  the  ocean  front  of  Alaska 
from  Portland  Channel  to  Cook's  Inlet,  west  of  Valdez, 
is  mountainous.  The  coast  range  throughout  that  entire 
distance  of  1,200  or  1,500  miles,  is  high  and  rugged  and 


22  8         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

difficult  of  penetration.  The  White  Pass  road,  however, 
has  surmounted  the  difficulties  of  railroad  passage  through 
the  mountain  barrier  and  gov-ernment  surveys  and  private 
explorations  have  found  a  route  on  American  territory 
through  Keystone  Canyon  and  over  what  is  known  as 
Thompson's  Pass,  northeast  of  Valdez,  over  which  it  is 
said  to  be  entirely  practicable  to  build  and  operate  a  rail- 
road. The  testimony  is  practically  unanimous  on  this 
point,  including  that  of  Senator  Nelson,  who  while  our 
party  halted  at  Valdez,  in  company  with  Lieutenant 
Barker  and  Assistant  Engineer  McMillan,  of  the  Mc- 
Culloch,  rode  on  horseback  twenty-five  miles  up  the  Gov- 
ernment trail  to  Thompson's  Pass.  Once  over  the  range 
no  serious  difficulties  present  themselves  in  crossing  the 
Copper  River  valley  or  the  valley  of  the  Tanana,  and  the 
entire  feasibility  of  building  a  railroad  from  Valdez  to 
Eagle,  so  far  as  the  engineering  problems  are  concerned, 
is  not  seriously  disputed.  The  route  seems  to  present  no 
greater  difficulties  than  have  been  overcome  by  many  of 
the  engineering  achievements  on  American  and  Canadian 
roads.  Indeed,  the  engineering  difficulties  are  pronounced 
by  Lieutenant  Abercrombie,  who  laid  out  the  military 
trail  from  Valdez  to  Eagle,  to  be  comparatively  trifling. 
The  elevation  of  Thompson's  Pass  is  about  i,ooo  feet 
less  than  White  Pass  crossed  by  the  White  Pass  &  Yukon 
Railway.  The  only  question  is  one  of  financial  feasibility. 
Capital  cannot  be  easily  induced  to  engage  In  enterprises 
of  this  kind  without  reasonable  expectation  of  profitable 
return.   However,  a  company  has  been  organised  to  build 


THE  KEY  TO  ALASKA'S  WEALTH       229 

over  this  route,  encouraged,  no  doubt,  by  the  fact  that 
the  White  Pass  &  Yukon  Railway,  operated  in  connection 
with  its  steamboat  line  to  Dawson,  has  been  a  great 
financial  success,  the  original  investment  having  been 
cleared  up,  it  is  stated,  from  the  earnings  of  the  first  three 
years.  This  projected  road,  known  as  the  Valdez  & 
Yukon  Railway,  has  been  incorporated  under  the  laws  of 
Virginia  with  a  capital  of  $10,000,000,  When  it  will  be 
built  depends  upon  peculiar  conditions.  While  there  is 
considerable  gold  in  the  Copper  River  country,  more  in 
the  Tanana  valley,  and  still  more  in  the  Forty-Mile  coun- 
try toward  Eagle,  the  greatest  known  mineral  wealth  along 
that  route  is  believed  to  be  the  copper  deposits  of  the  Cop- 
per River  country.  During  the  summer  of  1903  three  or 
four  prospecting  parties,  each  representing  different  im- 
portant copper  interests  in  this  country  and  Mexico,  visited 
the  \'alley  of  the  Copper  River  and  its  tributaries  to  as- 
certain the  truth  of  the  reports  of  great  copper  deposits 
there.  These  explorers  were  very  reticent  as  to  the 
value  of  the  copper  deposits  supposed  to  exist  in  that 
region.  One  of  them,  however,  stated  to  a  reliable  citi/.en 
of  Valdez,  known  personally  to  the  writer,  that  when 
the  copper  deposits  of  the  Copper  River  country  began 
to  be  developed  and  put  upon  the  market  the  mines  of 
Butte  and  the  Calumet  and  Hecla  would  have  to  go  out  of 
business;  that  copper  could  be  produced  from  the  Alaska 
ores  at  a  third  or  a  fourth  ol  the  expense  incurreii  In  either 
of  the  localities  named.  No  copper  interest,  however,  seems 
prepared  to  commence  operations,   inlUienced  possibly  by 


230         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

the  fact  that  to  do  so  would  be  to  lessen  if  not  destroy 
the  v^alue  of  the  properties  already  in  operation  in  the 
States,  where  large  sums  are  already  invested.  These 
copper  kings  appear  to  be  watching  each  other,  however, 
each  to  see  that  the  others  do  not  get  the  start  of  him. 
This  country  has  been  protected  more  or  less,  and  the 
best  known  deposits  have  been  filed  upon  and  are  claimed 
by  individuals  who  have  set  a  high  price  upon  their  hold- 
ings. Some  day,  however,  these  rich  deposits  of  copper 
will  fall  into  the  hands  of  men  of  capital  and  will  be 
developed;  but  until  they  do  pass  into  the  hands  of  men  of 
large  means  capable  of  developing  them,  the  construction 
of  the  Valdez  and  Eagle  railroad  through  that  copper 
region  is  likely  to  be  deferred.  Whoever  builds  the  road, 
and  it  will  doubtless  be  built  some  day,  will  first  have  to 
obtain  control  of  the  best  copper  deposits,  in  the  develop- 
ment of  which  such  a  railroad  would  be  almost  indis- 
pensable.* 

Among  the  inducements  to  build  such  a  railroad,  I  have 
referred  only  to  the  mineral  wealth  of  the  region  to  be 
traversed.  All  the  testimony  obtainable  from  residents, 
prospectors,  military  explorers,  builders  of  the  Govern- 
ment telegraph  lines,  mail-carriers,  agents  of  the  agricul- 
tural department  and  others  best  acquainted  with  the  coun- 

*  The  recent  discoveries  on  the  Tanana  and  the  marvellous  growth  of  the  great  gold 
camp  at  Fairbanks  constitute  another  reason  why  this  projected  road  should  be  built,  for, 
while  Fairbanks  is  considerably  west  of  the  point  where  the  Eagle  City  trail  crosses  the 
Tanana,  it  would  doubtless  become  the  objective  of  a  branch  if  not  of  the  main  line.  If 
Fairbanks  proves  to  be  a  permanent  camp,  it  ought  to  add  considerably  to  the  inducements 
to  build  the  Valdez  and  Eagle  City  railroad. 


THE  KEY  TO  ALASKA'S  WEALTH      231 

try,  is  to  the  effect  that  there  are  large  areas  in  the  Tanana 
and  Copper  River  valleys  adapted  to  successful  agriculture 
and  stock-raising  and  that  when  transportation  facilities 
have  been  provided  hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  of  rich 
soil  will  come  into  use,  and  furnish  large  traffic  to  a  rail- 
road. 

Ex-Governor  Leedy,  of  Kansas,  who  had  just  returned 
from  the  Copper  River  valley,  said  to  the  senatorial  com- 
mittee at  Valdez,  that  he  had  been  obliged  to  pay  thirty- 
five  cents  a  pound  for  oats  for  his  horse  right  on  ground 
that  would  produce  that  article  as  well  as  Illinois  or  Ohio. 
The  Government  tests  seem  to  show  that  beyond  question 
this  portion  of  Alaska  will  produce  forage  for  ani- 
mals In  great  abundance.  But  the  agricultural  possibilities 
of  Alaska  is  another  story. 

The  Government  is  not  likely  to  subsidise  any  railroad 
in  Alaska.  Land  grants  in  countries  whose  chief  known 
resources  are  minerals  are  not  very  practicable  and  a  cash 
or  bond  subsidy  is  not  now  a  popular  idea. 

What  the  Government  is  more  likely  to  do  and  ought 
to  undertake  without  unnecessary  delay  is  the  building 
of  a  wagon  road  over  the  route  proposed  for  the  rail- 
road, with  branches  leading  to  adjacent  mining  camps. 
Such  a  road  would  greatly  stimulate  the  tlexclopment  of 
the  country  and  in  that  way  hasten  the  building  of  a  rail- 
road. 

I  he  history  of  things  at  White  Pass  illustrates  this 
point.  Mr.  Cieorge  A.  Brackett,  of  Minneapolis,  demon- 
strated the  feasibility  of  jnitting  a  wagon   roaii  oxer  the 


2J2  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

^^'hite  Pass  and  showed  so  conclusively  that  the  obstacles 
to  cheaper  transportation  than  the  pack  trail  aliorded 
might  be  removed  and  the  way  opened  for  the  easy  en- 
trance of  thousands  of  prospectors  into  the  Klondike,  that 
capital  was  willing  to  follow  and  build  a  railroad.  The 
same  result  may  be  worked  out  in  substantially  the  same 
way  at  Valdez,  while  as  a  regulator  of  railroad  rates  it 
would  probably  pay  to  maintain  the  wagon  road  per- 
manently. 

The  next  question,  of  course,  is,  where  is  the  money  to 
come  from?  Will  the  federal  Government  make  the  neces- 
sary appropriations?  I  do  not  know  that  any  reliable 
estimates  of  the  cost  have  been  made,  but  the  million  dol- 
lars expended  by  Canada  in  five  years  for  875  miles  of 
roads  and  trails  has  provided  23omilesof  good  wagon  road 
which  probably  absorbed  half  of  the  total  outlay.  Across 
the  coast  range  and  among  the  inland  mountains  greater 
difficulties  are  to  be  encountered  on  this  Valdez  to  Eagle 
route  than  on  any  part  of  the  Klondike  system,  but  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  distance  the  construction  of  a 
wagon  road  would  be  neither  difficult  nor  expensive.  A 
bulletin  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  estimates 
that  wagon  roads  can  be  built  in  the  interior  of  Alaska  at 
an  average  cost  of  $1,000  to  $1,500  a  mile.  Many  a  min- 
ing camp  has  already  spent  on  excessive  charges  for  the 
freightage  of  its  supplies  several  times  the  cost  of  a  wagon 
road.  Nor  would  it  be  necessary  for  the  United  States  to 
draw  upon  its  own  revenues  alone  to  provide  the  money 
necessary.  Alaska  Is  already  paying  into  the  treasury  of 


THE  KEY  TO  ALASKA'S  WEALTH      233 

the  United  States,  and  has  been  for  years,  a  great  many 
thousands  of  dolhirs  annually  more  than  the  Government 
returns  to  the  district  of  Alaska  in  the  form  of  public 
service  of  any  kind.  This  surplus  above  what  is  expended 
on  the  administration  of  the  laws  made  for  the  district 
goes  into  the  treasury  of  the  United  States  and  is  appro- 
priated to  the  general  expenses  of  the  Government.  But 
whether  the  surplus  revenues  of  Alaska  are  sufficient  to 
aid  materially  in  wagon-road  construction  or  not,  the  Gov- 
ernment at  Washington  owes  it  to  the  people  who  arc 
enduring  the  prixations  and  hardships  of  pioneering  in 
Alaska  to  give  them  the  transportation  facilities  *  neces- 
sary to  the  development  of  that  great  country,  as  Canada 
has  done  for  the  British  Yukon.  We  have  a  better  country 
to  develop,  and  the  principle  upon  which  public  money 
is  expended  upon  river  and  harbour  improvements,  upon 
the   Weather   Bureau,    upon   the   coast   survey,   upon   the 

*  At  the  second  session  of  the  Fifty-eighth  Congress,  Senator  Nelson,  of  Minnesota, 
secured  the  incorporation  in  the  army  appropriation  bill  of  a  provision  for  the  survey  of  a 
wagon  road  from  Valdez  to  Fort  Egbert  at  Eagle  on  the  Yukon  River,  the  survey  to  be 
made  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  War.  This  survey  was  made  during  the 
summer  of  1904.  The  report  is  not  public  at  this  writing,  but  it  is  a  foregone  conclusion 
that  no  serious  engineering  difficulties  were  encountered. 

Senator  Nelson  also  secured  at  the  same  session  the  passage  of  a  bill  by  the  Senate  p.o- 
viding  that  all  receipts  from  liquor,  occupation  or  trade  licenses  outside  of  incorporated 
towns,  and  all  fines,  fees,  etc.,  outside  of  incorporated  towns,  except  in  case  of  direct  vio- 
lation of  customs  laws,  and  all  fees  collected  by  the  clerks  of  the  courts,  after  paying  the 
expenses  of  the  courts,  shall  be  deposited  with  the  treasury  department  to  be  known  as  the 
"  Alaska  fund."  One-fourth  of  the  fund,  or  so  much  as  may  be  necessary,  is  to  be  set 
apart  for  schools,  five  per  cent,  of  the  fund  is  to  be  devoted  to  the  care  of  the  insane  and 
all  the  remainder  is  to  be  devoted  to  the  construction  of  wagon  roads,  bridges  and  trails  in 
Alaska.  The  work  is  to  be  done  under  the  supervision  of  a  special  commiss'on  of  army 
officers  detailed  for  the  service.   This  bill  has  since  passed  the  House. 


234         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

mail  service  and  in  other  ways  for  the  benefit  of  trade 
and  commerce  justifies  the  use  of  a  few  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands where  the  benefits  to  be  conferred  are  prospectively 
so  great.  If  recent  precedent  is  needed,  we  have  the  action 
of  the  Government  in  building  roads  in  the  Philippines. 
They  were  constructed  originally  as  a  military  necessity, 
but  their  value  to  the  commerce  of  the  country  has  led  to 
their  use  and  maintenance  for  that  purpose  and  to  the  con- 
struction of  additional  lines  for  the  public  good.  What  we 
can  afford  to  do  for  the  Philippines  we  can  afford  to  do  for 
Alaska. 

And  all  this  applies  not  only  to  the  Valdez-Eagle  road, 
but  to  the  situation  in  the  Seward  Peninsula,  on  the 
Tanana,  in  the  Circle  City  district,  the  Rampart  district, 
and  wherever  the  development  of  the  country  halts  for 
that  stimulus  which  only  adequate  means  of  transporta- 
tion can  give. 

Notice  should  be  taken  in  this  connection  of  another 
projected  railroad  now  under  construction  from  a  new 
town  called  Seward,  on  the  east  side  of  the  Kenai  penin- 
sula and  at  the  head  of  Resurrection  Bay,  almost  due 
north  to  the  Tanana  River.  Twenty-five  miles  are  said 
to  have  been  graded  and  ironed  and  the  projectors  claim 
to  have  plenty  of  money  to  carry  out  their  plans.  It  would 
afford  a  direct  route  to  Fairbanks  and  the  great  Tanana 
gold  field. 

When  we  arrived  at  Valdez  we  had  been  thirty  days  out 
of  reach  of  the  rest  of  the  world  by  wire  and  were  even 
willing  to  pay  45  cents  a  word  for  nothing  less  than  ten- 


THE  KEY  TO  ALASKA'S  WEALTH      235 

word  messages  to  hear  from  the  "  hind  of  the  living." 
Valdez  received  and  banqueted  the  senatorial  party  and 
talked  transportation  facilities  for  two  days.  Unquestion- 
ably transportation  is  the  key  to  Alaska's  great  mineral 
wealth.  Without  it  little  progress  can  be  made;  with  it 
supplies  will  be  cheapened,  machinery  may  be  taken  in  and 
the  cost  of  production  so  reduced  that  tens  of  thousands 
of  acres  of  gravel,  not  now  workable  at  a  profit,  will  begin 
to  pour  a  golden  stream  into  the  channels  of  trade  and 
commerce.  It  is  a  business  proposition,  but  it  is  a  big  one 
and  one  in  which  the  Government,  from  the  nature  of  the 
case,  must  at  least  make  a  beginning. 

The  climate  of  Valdez  is  mild  and  the  harbour  is  open 
all  winter.  As  to  the  climate  of  Alaska,  there  may  be  said 
to  be  two.  A  mild,  moist  climate  is  found  along  the  ocean 
front  south  of  the  coast  range  and  the  Alaska  peninsula, 
and  on  the  Aleutian  Islands.  In  this  part  of  Alaska, 
washed  by  the  Japan  current,  the  temperature  rarely  falls 
below  zero.  When  the  moist  currents  of  air  strike  the  coast 
range  there  is  heavy  precipitation,  the  snowfall  for  the 
winter  at  Valdez  sometimes  measuring  from  50  to  60  leet 
calculated  as  it  falls,  and  settling  down  to  a  depth  of  six  or 
eight  feet.  Across  the  coast  range  in  the  interior  and  hom- 
ing Bering  Sea  the  conditions  arc  \cry  ditierent.  The 
atmosphere  is  dry,  the  snowfall  rarely  exceeds  two  feet 
and  the  temperature  has  a  range  during  the  year  from  60 
or  70  below  to  90  degrees  aboxe  zero. 

At  the  time  of  our  visit  Valdez  was  connected  by  Gov- 
ernment tclegraj)h,  by  way  of  Eagle,  with  Dawson,  from 


236         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

which  a  Canadian  line  runs  to  Ashcroft  on  the  Canadian 
Pacific  Raih-oad.  During  the  summer  of  1904  a  cable,  by 
way  of  Sitka  and  Juneau,  with  a  branch  to  Skagway,  was 
laid  between  Seattle  and  Valdez,  and  is  now  in  operation. 
This  cable  connects  at  Valdez  with  the  overland  lines  to 
Eagle,  Rampart,  Fairbanks  and  St.  Michael;  from  St. 
Michael  there  is  wireless  telegraphic  service  to  Nome. 
A  telephone  line  is  in  operation  between  Nome  and  Council 
City  and  across  the  peninsula  northward  to  the  camps  on 
Kotzebue  Sound.  Prince  William  Sound  penetrates  into 
the  mainland  farther  than  any  other  inlet  open  all  the  year 
on  the  south  shore,  and,  for  that  reason,  is  a  favourable 
point  from  which  to  initiate  any  kind  of  transportation 
system  into  the  interior.  It  is  665  miles  from  Skagway 
to  Eagle  by  the  White  Pass  route,  and  only  420  miles 
from  Valdez  to  Eagle  by  the  military  trail,  over  which  it 
is  proposed  to  build  a  railroad. 


# 


XI 
POLITICAL  CONDITIONS 

OUR  school  geographies  used  to  teach  us  that  Mt. 
St.  Khas,  near  the  south  shore  of  Alaska,  was  the 
highest  mountain  on  the  North  American  conti- 
nent. And  so  it  was,  so  far  as  the  geographers  of 
that  day  knew.  It  is  only  recently  that  we  have  learned 
differently.  But  this  is  an  age  of  expansion,  and  when 
the  explorers  found  recently  another  mountain  about 
150  miles  north  of  Mt.  St.  I^lias  which  is  over  2,000 
feet  higher,  it  was  appropriate  that  they  should  give  it  the 
name  of  the  great  expansionist  and  call  it  Mt.  McKinley. 
Mt.  St.  F.lias  was  the  boast  of  Russian  America,  with  its 
lofty  altitude  of  17,850  feet  (Russian  hydrographic 
chart) .  Our  coast  survey  since  the  purchase  has  raised  it  to 
19,500,  of  course.  But  Alaska,  American  Alaska,  takes 
pride  in  the  cold  and  stately  grandeur  of  the  yet  unscalcil 
summit  of  Mt.  McKinley,  which  rises  to  a  height  of  20,  i6(^ 
feet,  or  nearly  four  miles  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Two 
unsuccessful  attempts  have  been  made  to  climb  to  the  top 
of  Mt.  McKinley,  one  by  Judge  Wickersham  of  the  cen- 
tral judicial  district  of  Alaska,  and  one  by  the  Cook  explor- 
ing expedition.  Mt.  McKinley  is  far  iiibind  and  brhind 
the  coast  range,  so  that  it  cannot  be  seen  at  sea,  but  Mt. 
St.  Elias  is  visible    from   shijis  one   hundred   miles  away 

237 


238  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

on  a  clear  day.  A  clear  day,  however,  is  a  rare  thing 
on  the  summit  of  Mt.  St.  Elias.  Its  snow-clad  peak  is 
wrapped  in  almost  continuous  cloud  and  storms  rage 
on  its  bleak  and  wind-swept  heights  except  at  rare  and 
brief  intervals.  Ihe  moisture  from  the  sea,  swept  inland 
by  the  air  currents,  falls  in  rain  or  snow  and  here  are 
formed  the  largest  ice  fields  in  Alaska. 

The  McCulloch,  having  on  board  the  senatorial  party, 
weighed  anchor  Sunday  morning,  August  i6,  in  Valdez 
harbour,  bound  for  Sitka.  The  next  morning,  when  we 
came  on  deck,  the  sea  was  full  of  ice  and  there  was  "  a  nip- 
ping and  an  eager  air  "  which  sent  us  all  below  for  our 
heaviest  wraps.  While  the  ship  poked  her  nose  between 
the  tiny  icebergs  which  literally  covered  the  surface  of  the 
sea,  there  was  a  crackling  and  tinkling  as  the  crystal  shal- 
lops struck  one  against  another  and,  washed  by  the 
lapping  waves,  took  on  the  most  fantastic  shapes.  It 
was  a  dull  imagination,  indeed,  w^hich  could  not  see 
birds,  and  bears,  and  antlered  deer,  dancing  canoes  and 
many  other  interesting  shapes  on  the  glistening  field  of 
ice. 

A  glance  ahead  explained  our  unusual  surroundings. 
About  five  miles  off  our  port  bow — you  see  we  had  been 
on  the  sea  for  nearly  three  weeks  and  had  come  to  think 
in  the  language  of  the  foc'sle — was  seen  a  solid  wall  of  ice 
apparently  perpendicular,  to  a  height  variously  estimated 
from  500  to  1,000  feet.  A  prudent  shipmaster  took  us  no 
nearer  than  four  miles,  but  near  enough  for  us  to  discover 
with  our  field-glasses  the  jagged  and  massive  front  of  this 


240         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

white  rampart,  streaked  with  blue  where  the  fissures 
opencil  tor  hundreds  of  feet  straight  down. 

We  were  in  front  of  the  Malaspina  glacier,  the  largest 
glacier  in  Alaska,  and  bearing  the  name  of  the  one  Italian 
explorer  who  reached  these  northern  shores.  Mt.  St.  Elias 
stands  back  fifty  miles  from  the  sea,  the  tallest  of  a  group 
of  mountains  from  whose  summits  flows  down,  through 
the  valleys  between  the  lower  peaks,  emerging  like  islands, 
a  frozen  mass  of  ice  and  snow  seventy  miles  in  width.  The 
eastern  half  is  what  is  known  as  a  dead  glacier,  and  is  held 
back  from  the  sea  by  a  moraine,  the  deposit  of  ages,  ground 
off  the  sides  of  the  mountains  by  the  sliding,  slipping  ice 
field.  The  western  half,  before  which  we  have  arrived,  is 
"  alive  "  and  is  continually  dropping  pieces  of  its  crum- 
bling front  into  the  sea.  For  thirty  miles  and  for  nearly 
four  hours,  we  sail  along  this  icy  cliff,  marvelling  at  its 
wonderful  extent  and  at  the  still  more  wonderful  expanse 
of  the  ice  field  behind  it,  which  reaches  back  for  forty 
miles  or  more  up  the  slopes  of  the  white  coast  range.  We 
are  eager  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  old  St.  Elias,  but  the  clouds 
hang  in  heavy  masses  around  his  head  and  conceal  it  from 
our  disappointed  vision. 

We  have  learned  by  this  time  that  Alaska  has  so  many 
valuable  resources  that  we  are  not  surprised  at  the  claim 
that  it  will  soon  produce  petroleum  in  merchantable  quan- 
tity and  quality.  During  the  night,  after  leaving  Valdez, 
we  passed  Kayak,  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Copper  River, 
where  three  flowing  oil  wells  are  said  to  have  been  sunk, 
while   promising   indications   are    found   on   the   adjacent 


Sitka  Totems 


242         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

mainland.  Analysis  of  the  oil  shows  it  to  be  of  as  good 
quality  as  the  Pennsylvania  product.  The  United  States 
Geological  Survey  reports  indications  of  oil  at  various 
places  along  the  south  shore,  from  Cape  Yaktag,  east  of 
the  mouth  of  Copper  River,  to  the  Alaska  Peninsula,  on 
the  west  side  of  Cook's  Inlet. 

Deposits  of  coal  have  been  uncovered  on  the  Alaska 
Peninsula  and  on  Controller  Bay  near  the  mouth  of  Cop- 
per River.  Alfred  H.  Brooks,  chief  of  the  division  of  Alas- 
kan mineral  resources,  says  this  Controller  Bay  coal  is  the 
best  thus  far  found  on  the  Pacific  coast  of  North  America. 
Developments  of  the  past  year  seem  to  have  established 
the  existence  on  the  west  side  of  Prince  of  Wales  Island  of 
a  practically  inexhaustible  supply  of  some  26  varieties  of 
marble  of  splendid  quality,  adapted  to  monumental  and 
decorative  work. 

There  is  one  remarkable  man,  who  figured  prominently 
on  our  Pacific  coast  for  nearly  thirty  years,  of  whom  little 
is  generally  known.  Alexander  Baranof,  cast  for  the  part 
of  one  of  our  modern  captains  of  industry,  would  have 
marshalled  the  forces  of  science  and  invention,  of  labour 
and  capital,  with  surprising  ability.  Taking  charge  of  the 
affairs  of  the  Russian  American  company  in  1790,  he  made 
Kadiak  Island  the  centre  of  his  operations  for  a  time,  but 
eventually  established  his  headquarters  at  Sitka.  Possibly 
he  might  have  found  a  more  picturesque  spot  on  which  to 
found  the  central  station  of  the  Russian  fur  trade,  but 
I  have  not  seen  it.  Sitka  is  on  the  west  side  of  Baranof 
Island,  on  the  outer  edge  of  the  archipelago,  but  sheltered 


244         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

by  capes  and  islands  till  its  harbour  affords  a  refuge  to 
ships  of  every  description.  Baranof  did  not  succeed  in  effect- 
ing a  permanent  settlement  here  without  great  difficulties; 
and  one  sad  chapter  of  the  long  story  of  struggle  and  hard- 
ship and  suffering  and  prodigal  waste  of  human  life  which 
marked  the  Russian  occupation  relates  to  the  massacre  of 
the  first  colony  by  the  savage  Koloshes.  But  defeat  only 
inspired  him  to  greater  effort  and  the  name  of  Baranof  is 
to  this  day  held  in  great  esteem  by  the  descendants  in  Sitka 
of  the  men  of  Baranof's  time.  The  great  blockhouse  built 
on  the  rocky  eminence  at  the  head  of  the  harbour  after 
Baranof  had  long  been  dead  was  known  before  it  burned 
as  Baranof  Castle,  and  a  public-house  which  has  survived 
several  generations  bears  his  name  and  testifies  that  the 
fame  of  Sitka's  most  distinguished  citizen  is  still  alive 
there. 

We  do  not  produce  such  men  nowadays.  Probably  be- 
cause we  do  not  need  them.  But  Baranof  had  a  work  to  do 
and  did  it.  Rather  slight  of  figure,  by  no  means  robust- 
looking,  but  hospitable  to  prodigality,  measuring  his  hos- 
pitality in  tankards  of  the  vilest  of  liquors,  he  calculiited 
the  appreciation  of  himself  among  his  guests  by  the  lib- 
erality of  their  potations. 

Not  to  drink  with  him  was  to  give  offence  which  called 
for  satisfaction,  and  not  to  keep  pace  with  him  was  to  incur 
his  contempt,  or  something  worse.  And  yet  this  bullying 
roysterer,  as  he  sometimes  appeared,  was  loved  by  chil- 
dren, respected  for  his  ability  and  his  fairness  by  all  his 
people    and  esteemed  himself  a  chosen  agent  of  Divine 


POLITICAL  CONDITIONS  245 

Providence  to  carry  out  its  purposes.  His  official  reports 
are  full  of  pious  references  to  the  favour  of  the  Almighty 
when  his  enterprises  were  successful  and  of  acknowledg- 
ments of  the  justice  of  the  Divine  disfavour  when  he  was 
overtaken  by  disaster.  A  strange  mixture  of  strength  and 
weakness,  of  cruelty  and  gentleness,  of  failure  and  success, 
he  is  the  conspicuous  figure  of  the  Russian  regime,  which 
continued  for  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years. 

Attended  by  the  puffins,  the  seagulls  and  the  sooty  alba- 
tross, and  accompanied  at  times  by  the  spouting  whale  or 
the  sportive  blackfin  which  abounds  in  these  North  Pacific 
waters,  we  arrived  in  sight  of  Baranof  Island  in  the  morn- 
ing of  August  18,  and  crept  past  Mt.  Edgecumbe  and  in 
among  the  little  islands  that  dot  the  harbour  of  Sitka  and 
give  it  that  fairyland  appearance  which  charms  every 
visitor. 

Of  course  we  "  do  "  Sitka,  as  other  tourists  have  "  done  " 
it,  for  we  are  back  at  last  on  the  beaten  path.  After  5,000 
miles  through  the  interior  and  among  the  islands  of  the 
Alaskan  waters,  we  have  come  to  that  charming  spot 
which  every  year  attracts  many  travellers,  who  fancy, 
when  they  have  gone  home  again,  that  they  have  seen 
Alaska.  We  \isit  Intlian  Rix-er  Park,  and  the  totem  poles, 
the  Jackson  Museum,  the  Indian  village,  which,  at  a  little 
distance,  looks  more  like  the  residence  quarter  of  a  factory 
town,  but  quickly  loses  that  resemblance  on  closer  inspec- 
tion. We  climb  the  hill  to  the  old  l^ussian  cemetery  lor  a 
view  of  the  town  and  the  harbour,  but  cannot  stay  long 
enough  with  a  landscape  which  spreads  itself  before  the 


246         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

eye  but  once  in  a  lifetime;  we  trade  with  the  curio-dealers, 
who  supply  their  shelves  from  the  Indian  end  of  the  town, 
where  curio-making  is  the  chief  industry,  and  find  it 
cheaper  to  deal  with  the  middleman  than  with  the  manu- 
facturer; we  bare  our  heads  in  the  old  Greek  church,  the 
cathedral  of  the  Archangel  Michael,  and  listen  to  a  special 
service  while  our  interest  centres  chiefly  in  the  rich  decora- 
tions of  the  sacred  place.  A  Madonna  and  Child  illustrates 
the  peculiar  treatment  of  many  of  the  pictures  in  an  effort 
to  do  special  honour  to  the  subjects  of  the  paintings. 
Except  the  faces  and  hands,  the  entire  surface  of  the  paint- 
ing, the  work  of  a  Russian  artist,  is  heavily  overlaid  with 
solid  silver,  finely  wrought  so  as  to  produce  a  peculiar 
radiant  effect. 

The  Sheldon  Jackson  Museum  is  a  rich  storehouse  of 
the  implements,  weapons,  articles  of  dress  and  all  manner 
of  handiwork,  ancient  and  modern,  of  the  Alaska  Indians, 
as  well  as  the  repository  of  many  valuable  and  interesting 
remains  of  the  Russian  occupation  of  the  country. 

But  we  are  becoming  surfeited  with  picturesque  scenery 
and  a  little  tired  of  commercially  inclined  Indians,  and  are 
more  interested  in  rambling  idly  about  the  quiet  streets  of 
this  quaint  old  town,  where  it  is  always  3  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  and  nothing  ever  happens.  Go  to  Sitka  if  you 
want  to  rest;  that's  all  they  do  there.  And  who  can  blame 
them?  No  other  occupation  would  be  in  keeping  with  the 
quiet  seclusion  of  the  place.  You'll  understand  it  all  in  a 
very  few  hours.  There  may  be  a  big,  busy,  bustling  world 
outside  somewhere,  of  which  you  were  once  a  part,  but  you 


The  Shore  Walk  Leading  to  Indian  Rivgr  Pitrk 


248  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

will  take  little  interest  in  the  fact.  The  summer  air  is 
balmy,  and  il  the  clouds  do  come  sometimes,  the  falling 
rain  only  deepens  the  sense  of  satisfaction  you  will  feel 
in  having  got  off  the  earth,  the  busy  earth.  Who  would 
have  expected  to  find  up  here  on  the  Alaskan  coast  a  veri- 
table lotus-land? 

Sitka  was  the  capital,  so  to  speak,  of  Russian  America, 
and  when  that  vast  territory  was  transferred  to  the  United 
States,  our  flag,  our  symbol  of  sovereignty,  was  run  up 
first  at  Sitka.  Until  recently  Sitka  has  remained  the  capital, 
but  it  retains  now  no  evidence  of  its  former  dignity  except 
the  residences  of  the  governor  and  the  surveyor  general. 
All  the  other  district  oflices  have  been  removed  to  the  more 
accessible  and  commercially  important  city  of  Juneau,  on 
the  regular  route  of  the  steamers  between  Seattle  and 
Skagway.  But  without  any  organised  territorial  form  of 
government  in  Alaska,  it  doesn't  make  much  difference 
where  the  capital  is. 

It  may  surprise  some  who  have  not  given  much  thought 
to  the  matter  to  know  that  this  great  district,  nearly  as  big 
as  that  part  of  the  United  States  east  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  and  containing  a  population  of  60,000  people,  is 
governed  entirely  from  Washington,  except  in  the  matter 
of  local  affairs  managed  by  the  few  municipal  corporations 
they  have  been  allowed  to  organise.  Congress  has  not 
failed  to  give  to  Hawaii  a  home  government,  and  even 
Porto  Rico  enjoys  a  larger  measure  of  home  rule  than  is 
accorded  to  the  people  of  Alaska,  who  are,  so  far  as  the 
white  population  is  concerned,   as  familiar  with,   and  as 


POLITICAL  CONDITIONS 


249 


thoroughly  trained  In  the  art  of  self-government  as  the 
people  of  Minnesota,  for  they  are  nearly  all  recent  resi- 
dents of  the  States.  The  fact  is  that  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment bought  Alaska   about  thirty-five  years  ago  and 


The  Greek  Church  at  Sitka 


then  laid  it  asitle  ami  almost  forgot  about  it.  It  is  true  that 
an  unsuccessful  attempt  was  made  to  go\"ern  it  through 
the  military  arm  of  authority  for  a  time,  but  the  presence 
of  the  military  wrought  vastly  more  harm  than  good,  and 
the  soldiers  were  withtlrawn.  A  go\ernor  and  finally  a 
judge  and  a  few  other  disti-ict  officers  were  ajipointcd,  till 
now  there  are  three  judges  ami  three  judicial  ilistricts  with 
their  court  officers;  a  collector  of  customs  and  his  tleputies; 


2SO         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

a  sur\eyor-gcncral,  a  register  and  receiver  of  the  Land 
Office,  a  collector  of  internal  revenue,  two  officers  of  the 
National  Bureau  of  Education  and  four  special  agents 
of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  all  of  whom  are  ap- 
pointive, and  are  actually  sent  out  from  the  States  because 
they  have  a  "  pull."  I  do  not  mean  by  that  anything 
derogatory  to  the  federal  officers  in  Alaska,  for  so  far 
as  I  know,  with  a  few  notable  exceptions,  they  have  been 
honest  and  capable;  the  method  of  their  selection  is  the 
point  of  interest.  There  has  been  some  special  legislation 
by  Congress  with  respect  to  Alaska,  a  general  civil  code 
and  a  criminal  code  have  been  framed,  and  municipal 
corporations  authorised,  but  it  was  hardly  to  be  expected 
that  this  could  be  made  entirely  satisfactory  by  a  body  of 
men  sitting  5,000  or  6,000  miles  away,  very  few  of  whom 
had  eV'Cr  seen  Alaska  or  had  any  adequate  idea  of  the 
needs  of  the  district. 

No  wonder,  then,  that  there  is  a  strong,  though  not 
unanimous,  sentiment  in  Alaska  in  favour  of  a  territorial 
form  of  government.  The  wonder  is  that  it  is  not  more 
insistent  in  its  demand  than  it  is.  Two  facts  already  stated 
explain,  in  part  at  least,  why  Alaska  has  not  had  home  rule 
before  this.  One  is  the  size  of  the  district;  the  other  the 
lack  of  means  of  transportation.  Population  statistics  are 
necessarily  unreliable,  but  of  the  63,000  reported  in  1900, 
probably  one-half  are  Eskimos,  Indians,  and  Creoles. 
That  leaves  something  over  30,000  whites,  chiefly  Ameri- 
cans, scattered  over  this  immense  district,  with  very  inade- 
quate  means   of   communication   and   transportation   be- 


POLITICAL  CONDITIONS  251 

tween  different  sections.  Of  this  American  population 
approximately  one-third  is  in  southeastern  Alaska,  which 
may  be  described  as  all 
that  part  between  Yakutat 
Bay  and  Portland  Canal, 
where,  according  to  the  late 
boundary  decision,  Alaska 
begins.  Another  third, 
roughly  estimated,  is  at 
Nome,  on  the  Seward  Pen- 
insula, and  in  all  that  region 
tributary  from  St.  Michael 
north  to  the  Kotzebue 
Sound  country.  The  re- 
mainder are  scattered  along 
the  Yukon,  for  1,500  miles, 
along  the  Tanana,  up  on  the 
headwaters  of  the  Koyukuk 
In  northern  Alaska,  down 
on  the  Kuskokwim  In  south- 
western Alaska,  in  the  Val- 
dez  and  the  Copper  River 
valley,  on  the  Kenai  pen- 
insula, and  the  southwest 
Islands.  These  three  arbi- 
trary groups  correspond  \cry  nearly  with  the  di\i- 
sion  of  Alaska  into  judicial  districts. 

Now  the  people  of  southeastern  Alaska  have  about  as 
much  in  common  with  the  people  of  the  Seward   Pcnin- 


M.ul(jnn;i  in  Circck  Church,  Sitka 


252         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

sula  as  the  people  of  Maine  have  with  the  people  of 
Texas,  and  the  people  along  the  central  Yukon  are  more 
remote  in  point  of  transportation  and  communication 
from  the  Kenai  peninsula  than  is  Boston  from  San 
Francisco.  The  nominal  capital  is  now  at  Juneau,  which 
is  as  accessible  from  other  parts  of  Alaska  as  any  place 
that  could  be  selected.  But  suppose  a  legislature  and  a 
delegate  to  Congress  were  to  be  elected  and  returns  made 
and  a  session  held.  If  the  election  were  held  in  the  early 
summer  the  returns  might  all  reach  Juneau  in  time  to  have 
the  votes  counted  and  the  result  announced  before  the  sum- 
mer was  over,  but  any  officers  whose  presence  was  required 
in  Juneau  would  be  obliged  to  leave  the  Seward  Peninsula 
before  the  freeze-up,  about  the  20th  of  October,  and  could 
not  reach  home  again  till  the  next  summer. 

Still  greater  difficulties  would  lie  in  the  w^ay  of  officers 
chosen  from  other  sections.  The  telegraph  line  from 
Valdez  to  Eagle,  and  Rampart,  and  Ft.  Gibbon,  and  St. 
Michael,  and  Nome  is  now  completed,  and  will  bring  the 
remote  parts  of  this  vast  expanse  closer  together,  in  the 
sense  of  communication,  but  the  difficulties  of  travel  re- 
main and  will  till  railroads  or  wagon  roads,  the  necessity 
of  w'hich  has  already  been  pointed  out,  are  constructed. 

These  facts  of  the  remoteness  of  the  different  groups  of 
population  from  each  other  without  adequate  means  of 
transportation  are  practical  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the 
satisfactory  operation  of  a  territorial  form  of  government 
which  many  of  the  people  of  Alaska  duly  recognise  and  on 
account  of  which  they  are  willing  to  stand  up  among  their 


254         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

clamorous  friends  who  are  eager  for  home  rule,  as  they 
call  it,  antl  contend  that  the  conditions  are  not  ripe. 

The  expression  of  sentiment  varied  according  to  locality. 
From  Ketchikan  to  Skagway  the  predominating  sentiment 
was  for  territorial  government;  along  the  Yukon  we  heard 
almost  nothing  said  about  it,  at  Nome  opinion  w^as  divided 
again  and  was  no  doubt  fairly  represented  in  the  vote  of 
the  citizens'  committee  on  the  address  presented  to  the 
senatorial  committee.  That  address,  among  other  things, 
asked  for  territorial  government,  but  the  vote  of  the  com- 
mittee on  that  proposition  was  1 2  for  to  1 1  against  it. 

The  Alaskans  expect  that  country  to  become  some  part 
of  the  L^nited  States,  that  several  states  will  be  carved 
out  of  that  great  district  which  will  be  admitted  to  the 
Union,  and  they  talk  that  way.  The  Nome  memorial  so 
expresses  the  hope  of  that  community.  They  probably  do 
not  know  it,  but  just  that  possibility  is  one  thing  w^hicli 
operates  more  or  less  effectively  against  their  chances  for 
territorial  government.  I  want  to  say  distinctly  that,  so  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  discover,  no  prejudice  against  terri- 
torial government  on  this  account  exists  in  the  minds  of  the 
territorial  committee,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  there  is  a  senti- 
ment against  territorial  organisation  in  Alaska  among 
leaders  of  the  Senate,  who  hold  that  territory  outside  of  the 
United  States  as  now  constitute(^hould  never  be  admitted 
to  full  membership  in  the  union  of  states,  but  that  the  Con- 
gress should  retain  full  power  of  government  over  non- 
contiguous territory  without  promise  of  the  privilege  of 
future  statehood.  While  there  is  obvious  ground  for  oppo- 


POLITICAL  CONDITIONS 


255 


sition  so  far  as  our  island  possessions  are  concerned,  with 
their  alien  populations,  there  is  no  such  reason  to  resist  the 
entrance  of  Alaska  or  parts  of  it  into  the  Union  when  the 
time  comes — as  come  it  will,  so  far  as  population  is  con- 
cerned. The  people  of  Alaska  are  not  to  be  classed  with  the 
inhabitants  of  the  islands.  They  are  American  citizens  of 
the  better  type  in  many  respects,  while  ignorant  and  un- 
American  foreigners  are  scarce  in  that  country. 

But,  as  I  have  already  suggested,  the  main  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  territorial  government  for  Alaska  arc  not  polit- 
ical, but  physical.  If  the  population  were  collected  in  one 
reasonably  compact  district  and  readily  accessible,  the 
demand  could  not  be  denied.  Over  against  this  the  Alas- 
kans cite  the  history  of  territorial  organisation  beginning 
with  the  great  ordinance  of  1787,  wherein  the  immense 
area  northwest  of  the  Ohio  was  guaranteed  a  representa- 
tive government  when  it  should  have  a  population  of 
5,000;  or  the  territory  of  Oregon,  which  included  Wash- 
ington, Idaho  and  parts  of  Wyoming  and  Montana,  when 
it  took  six  months  to  send  a  letter  from  the  territorial  capi- 
tal to  Washington;  or  the  case  of  Michigan,  organised- 
as  a  territory  with  a  population  of  4,000  scattered  o\er 
what  is  now  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Minnesota  and  part 
of  the  Dakotas;  or  the  case  of  Dakota  I'crritorv  organised 
with  less  than  4,000  inlialul|ints. 

These  facts  are  jiertincnt  and  they  suggest,  it  seems  to 
me,  the  j)ropcr  and  most  satisfactory  treatment  ol  the 
yMaskan  (luestion  by  Congress.  Southeast  Alaska,  \\\\h  a 
white  population  of   15,000,  should  be  made  a  territory 


256         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

by  itself  with  its  capital  at  Juneau;  northwest  Alaska, 
ha\  iny;  a  permanent  white  po]iulation  of  about  13,000, 
should  constitute  another  territory  with  its  capital  at 
Nome,  and  the  remainder  of  the  district,  the  great  central 
and  comparatively  inaccessible  portion,  should  remain  sub- 
stantially as  it  is  till  developments  warrant  a  change. 

The  people  of  Alaska  are  practically  united  in  the  de- 
mand for  a  delegate  in  Congress.*  They  are  entitled  to  a 
delegate  and  Congress  has  only  hesitated  on  how  he  should 
be  chosen.  The  same  difficulties  would  attend  the  election 
of  one  delegate  for  the  whole  district  that  must  be  con- 
tended with  in  the  choice  of  territorial  officers,  and  if  Con- 
gress denies  territorial  organisation  of  the  district  as  a 
w^hole  on  those  grounds,  it  would  not  be  consistent  to  pro- 
vide for  the  election  of  a  delegate.  Appointment  by  the 
President  of  some  resident  of  Alaska  would  be  reasonably 
satisfactory,  but  better  still  if  two  territories  be  erected, 
as  above  suggested,  would  be  the  election  of  a  delegate 
from  each  of  the  territories  and  the  appoinment  of  a  third 
from  the  remaining  district. 

This  plan  may  be  far  in  advance  of  w^hat  Congress  may 
be  ready  to  grant,  but  it  is  an  arrangement  well  warranted 
by  the  conditions  as  they  exist,  and  would  promote  the  in- 
terests of  the  district  more  than  the  creation  of  one  great 
unwieldy  territory. 

But  as  to  the  benefit  to  be  gained  by  having  a  delegate 

♦Senator  Nelson  introduced  a  bill  last  winter  (1904)  in  the  Senate  providing  for  the 
election  of  a  delegate  to  Congress  from  Alaska,  but  it  failed  to  pass  A  similar  bill  passed 
the  House. 


POLITICAL  CONDITIONS  257 

in  Congress,  there  is  no  room  for  controversy.  Alaska  has 
suffered  enough  from  the  activities  of  self-appointed  dele- 
gates and  delegates  representing  political  factions  and 
special  interests,  and  from  the  lack  of  an  authorised  repre- 
sentative to  press  her  claims  on  the  attention  of  Con- 
gress; she  has  ev'erything  to  gain  from  the  presence  in 
Congress  of  an  honest  man  capable  of  presenting  the  in- 
terests of  the  district  clearly  and  convincingly  before  the 
committees  of  both  houses. 


XII 
AGRICULTURAL    POSSIBILITIES    OF   ALASKA 

GOVERNOR  BRADY  is  one  of  the  most  highly 
respected  and  one  of  the  most  unpopular  men  in 
Alaska.  John  G.  Brady  went  to  Alaska  as  a  mis- 
sionary to  the  Indians.  He  is  a  thoroughly  upright  and 
honourable  man.  Everybody  admits  that  and  yields  the 
respect  which  high  character  is  always  sure  to  command. 
But  he  is  not  progressive  and  hence  his  unpopularity, 
particularly  among  that  element  not  deeply  in  sympathy 
with  the  moral  standards  with  which  he  measures  public 
and  private  conduct.  There  have  been  no  scandals  in  the 
governor's  office,  and  there  will  be  none  while  he  is  its 
occupant,  but  there  are  those  in  Alaska,  and  they  are 
not  alone  those  who  are  out  of  sympathy  with  the  gov- 
ernor on  moral  and  religious  grounds,  who  feel  that  a 
more  aggressive  and  progressive  policy  than  he  has  pur- 
sued would  have  been  of  advantage  to  the  district.  Among 
these  are  the  ardent  advocates  of  a  territorial  form  of 
government,  who  intimate  more  or  less  clearly  that  if  the 
governor  would  spend  the  money  his  position  gives  him 
and  the  leisure  its  freedom  from  burdensome  duties  affords 
in  trying  to  impress  upon  the  Government  at  Washington 
that  it  is  its  duty  to  give  Alaska  home  rule,  he  would  be 
none  the  less  ornamental  and  a  good  deal  more  useful. 

258 


AGRICULTURAL  POSSIBILITIES         259 

One  of  the  first  things  this  suggested  to  me  when  I  dis- 
covered this  state  of  public  sentiment  was  the  unconscious 
tribute  it  implied  to  the  grey-haired  old  governor.  Cer- 
tainly, if  he  were  not  a  pretty  good  type  of  man,  he  would 
never  be  expected  by  anybody  to  do  a  thing  so  unprofes- 
sional in  a  politician  as  to  labour  for  the  abolition  of  the 
office  he  holds  at  $5,000  a  year  for  the  sake  of  entering 
an  expensive  and  uncertain  campaign  for  one  that  might 
command  less  salary. 

I  am  able,  however,  to  discover  other  than  selfish  rea- 
sons why  Governor  Brady  is  not  an  active  advocate  ol 
territorial  government  for  Alaska.  There  are  plenty  of 
Alaskans  who  hold  no  fat  federal  ofl^ices  who  are  opposed. 
They  not  only  think  that  the  district  is  too  big  and  un- 
wieldy, considering  the  number  of  people  it  contains,  the 
manner  in  which  they  are  distributed  and  the  difficulties  of 
communication  and  transportation,  to  make  it  practicable 
to  administer  a  territorial  government  at  reasonable  ex- 
pense— as  I  have  Indicated  In  a  previous  chapter — but  they 
believe  the  institution  of  a  territorial  government  would 
check  development.  It  is  significant  that  this  apprehension 
is  entertained  quite  generally  among  the  most  substantial 
business  men  of  Alaska.  Whether  this  Is  due  In  any  degree 
to  the  fact  that  they  are  bearing  less  than  their  share  of  the 
burden  of  taxation  under  the  present  federal  regime  or  not 
I  shall  not  venture  to  assert;  but  there  Is  no  doubt  that 
many  of  them  are  sincerely  apprehensive  lest  capital,  which 
Alaska  needs  as  much  as  any  country  in  the  world,  may  be 
afraid  to  venture  under  the  control  of  a  territorial  gov- 


26o         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

ernment.  No  doubt  capital,  which  is  always  timid,  would 
be  affected  more  or  less  by  the  inauguration  of  a  new  order 
of  things  in  Alaska,  but  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  terri- 
torial authority  would  or  could  be  used  to  disturb  business 
and  check,  development  more  effectively  than  the  federal 
authority  has  been  known  to  do  on  at  least  one  occasion. 
The  scandals  which  attended  the  exercise  of  federal 
authority  at  Nome  at  one  time  can  hardly  be  matched  by 
anything  likely  to  result  from  the  creation  of  a  representa- 
tive home-rule  government.  On  the  contrary,  I  should  look 
for  an  improvement  in  many  respects  when  the  federal 
courts  are  relieved  of  some  of  the  administrative  duties 
now  imposed.  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  the  judges 
are  now  abusing  their  authority,  but  many  of  the  functions 
they  exercise  are  not  judicial. 

As  it  is  now  the  judges  of  the  federal  courts  are  not 
only  the  judicial  but  in  a  large  measure  the  executive  offi- 
cers of  the  district.  They  issue  licenses  for  all  purposes, 
issue  franchises  to  business  corporations,  grant  charters  to 
incorporated  towns,  appoint  United  States  commissioners 
who  are  the  local  justices  of  the  peace,  coroners  and  re- 
corders, and  the  officers  of  the  courts  collect  the  occupation 
tax  which,  outside  of  the  incorporated  towns,  is  the  only 
tax.  When  the  manufacturer,  or  merchant,  or  freighter, 
or  fish-canner,  or  hotel-keeper,  or  any  other  kind  of  busi- 
ness man  commences  any  undertaking  he  is  required  to 
make  a  statement  of  the  amount  of  business  he  expects  to 
do  in  a  year,  and  must  pay  a  tax  graded  according  to  the 
volume  of  his  business.  If  at  the  end  of  the  year  he  finds 


AGRICULTURAL  POSSIBILITIES         261 

he  has  done  more  business  than  he  expected  to  when  he 
commenced,  he  is  required  to  pay  up  to  what  he  should 
have  paid  in  the  first  instance.  This  would  seem  to  be  a  very 
loose  way  of  collecting  taxes,  but  it  works  better  on  the 
whole  than  might  be  expected.  In  the  incorporated  towns, 
which  have  a  form  of  government  similar  to  that  common 
in  the  States,  and  of  which  I  believe  there  are  only  seven  or 
eight,  an  additional  property  tax  may  be  levied  for  munic- 
ipal, purposes.  Of  the  occupation  tax  collected  by  the  fed- 
eral authorities  in  the  towns  the  whole  amount  is  turned 
over  to  the  town  treasurers,  but  the  federal  judge  appor- 
tions the  money  between  the  city  council  and  the  school 
board  according  to  their  necessities.* 

The  report  of  the  senatorial  committee  shows  that 
Alaska  has  yielded  in  revenues  to  the  general  Govern- 
ment since  the  cession  by  Russia  $10,000,000,  which  is 
$1,000,000  more  than  the  entire  expenditure  in  her  behalf 
by  the  Government.  That  is  to  say,  the  people  of  Alaska 
have  paid  for  all  their  local  government  and  all  the  federal 

*  The  Fifty-eighth  Congress  has  provided  that  all  the  occupation  taxes  collected  outside 
of  the  incorporated  towns  shall  be  paid  into  the  treasury  of  the  United  States,  there  to  be 
maintained  as  a  separate  "  Alaska  fund  "  and  to  be  devoted  to  three  distinct  purposes. 
One-fourth  of  this  fund,  or  so  much  as  may  be  necessary,  is  to  be  expended  on  the  estab- 
lishment and  support  of  public  schools  for  white  children  and  children  of  mixed  blood  who 
lead  a  civilised  life;  five  per  cent,  of  this  fund,  or  so  much  as  may  be  necessary,  is  set  apart  for 
ihe  care  of  the  insane,  and  all  the  remainder  is  to  be  devoted  to  the  construction  and  main- 
tenance of  roads  under  the  direction  of  a  board  of  commissioners  to  be  composed  of  three 
officers  of  the  United  States  Army.  Heretofore  the  expenses  of  the  courts  and  the  edu- 
cation of  the  Indian  children  have  been  provided  for  out  of  this  occupation  tax,  which  is  a 
discrimination  against  the  people  of  Alaska,  as  in  all  the  organised  territories  of  the 
United  States  the  federal  Government  pays  all  these  expenses.  It  is  expected  that  after  the 
deductions  above  mentioned  have  been  made  from  the  "  Alaska  fund"  there  will  remain 
for  road-building  purposes  about  $70,000  annually. 


262         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

government  they  have  had,  and  all  the  money  expended  on 
behalf  of  the  natives,  and  $1,000,000  besides.  When  one 
contemplates  these  figures  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand 
why  the  Alaskan  feels  that  he  is  not  given  a  square  deal, 
when  the  Government  at  Washington  pockets  a  large  sum 
in  the  way  of  excess  revenues,  derived  through  direct  taxes 
levied  upon  him,  and  then  declines  to  give  him  home  rule 
on  the  plea  that  it  would  cost  too  much. 

But  I  have  been  diverted  into  a  further  discussion  of  the 
political  or  governmental  situation  in  Alaska,  whereas  I 
commenced  this  chapter  with  an  entirely  different  purpose 
in  mind.  I  first  thought  of  Governor  Brady  in  connection 
with  his  splendid  garden  around  his  residence  in  Sitka  and 
its  value  as  an  object  lesson  in  what  are  the  agricultural 
possibilities  of  Alaska.  "  Can  they  raise  anything  but  ice- 
bergs up  in  that  cold  country?  "  is  a  question  I  have  been 
requested  to  answer  many  times,  and  I  presume  it  has 
arisen  in  the  mind  of  some  who  have  followed  my  story  of 
the  senatorial  trip  through  Alaska.  Of  course  Governor 
Brady's  garden  is  not  exactly  a  fair  test  of  what  can  be 
done  in  this  respect  in  Alaska,  because  it  is  not  in 
Alaska  proper,  but  on  an  island  Avhere  the  climate 
is  much  milder  than  it  is  in  Minneapolis.  The  tem- 
perature rarely  reaches  zero  at  Sitka.  On  the  19th  of 
August  I  saw  in  Governor  Brady's  garden  several  varieties 
of  potatoes,  all  of  which  looked  exceedingly  thrifty  and 
some  of  which  had  been  producing  fine-looking  tubers,  ripe 
enough  for  use,  for  several  weeks ;  a  large  patch  of  splen- 
did raspberries,  a  little  past  their  prime ;  large  red  currants. 


.^'</i''/'^^^' 


.ti^d^bykl-jiih  a\ — 


Grown  in  Alaska 


264         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

ripe  strawberries  of  superior  quality  and  size ;  fine  cab- 
bages, cauliflower,  lettuce,  radishes,  turnips  and  other 
vegetables  of  that  character;  peas  and  beans  and  celery, 
and  practically  all  the  vegetables  that  thrive  in  our  Minne- 
sota gardens  and  some  that  do  not;  while  the  flower  garden 
was  gorgeous  in  variety  and  richness  of  colour.  Governor 
Brady  takes  great  pride  in  his  garden  of  about  two  acres, 
and  doubtless  could  derive  considerable  revenue  from  it 
if  he  desired;  but,  as  already  stated,  this  would  not  signify 
much  as  to  the  possibilities  of  the  interior  of  Alaska  if 
it  were  not  reinforced  by  personal  observation  and  a  great 
deal  of  concurring  testimony  wnth  respect  to  the  growth 
of  food  and  forage  plants  beyond  the  coast  range. 

The  importance  of  successful  agriculture  and  stock- 
raising  to  the  development  of  the  mineral  resources  of 
the  country  is  obvious.  It  was  of  importance,  for  instance, 
to  learn  on  our  way  to  Dawson  that  the  raising  of  potatoes 
and  cabbage,  and  turnips,  and  of  oats,  barley  and  rye  for 
forage  has  become  so  profitable  at  Ft.  Selkirk  on  the  Yu- 
kon as  to  induce  several  farmers  to  engage  there  in  that 
business  for  the  Dawson  market.  At  Eagle,  where  Ft. 
Egbert  is  situated,  100  miles  northwest  of  Dawson,  the 
commandant,  as  already  stated,  has  a  garden  of  four  or 
five  acres,  where  the  soldiers  raise  potatoes,  turnips,  cab- 
bages, peas,  lettuce,  radishes  and  other  vegetables  for  their 
own  use.  At  Circle  City,  still  farther  north,  was  seen  a 
field  of  oats  which  probably  did  not  ripen  but  which  would 
produce  good  forage.  Similar  examples  were  found  at 
other  points  on  the  Yukon,  but  the  best  demonstration 


AGRICULTURAL  POSSIBILITIES         265 

of  possible  agriculture  was  found  at  Holy  Cross  Mission 
on  the  Yukon,  where  the  Jesuit  fathers  have  the  prize  gar- 
den of  interior  Alaska. 

But  the  people  of  Alaska  do  not  look  upon  the  Yukon 
valley,  where  there  is  undoubtedly  a  great  deal  of  good 
soil,  as  prospectively  the  agricultural  region  of  Alaska. 
That,  by  consent  of  many  who  have  travelled  extensively 
over  the  district,  is  to  be  found  along  the  Tanana  and  In 
the  Copper  River  valley.  A  dozen  witnesses  testified  of 
their  own  observation  that  there  Is  a  fine  body  of  agri- 
cultural land  along  the  Tanana  which,  much  to  the  regret 
of  the  whole  party,  we  could  not  visit  for  lack  of  time  and 
suitable  means  of  transportation.  One  of  the  most  satis- 
factory reports  with  regard  to  that  section  was  obtained 
at  Eagle  from  Lieutenant  Mitchell  of  the  United  States 
signal  service,  who  had  travelled  it  thoroughly  In  survey- 
ing and  constructing  the  Government  telegraph  line.  The 
Tanana  River  rises  north  of  Mt.  St.  Ellas  near  the  bound- 
ary between  Canada  and  Alaska  and  flows  north  of  west 
into  the  Yukon.  Along  this  river  there  is  said  to  be  a  fine 
valley  averaging  30  miles  in  width  and  at  least  200  miles 
long.  It  Is  partly  timbered  and  partly  open  meadow  land 
covered  to  considerable  extent  with  a  tall,  blue  stem  grass. 
The  climate  in  this  valley  is  reported  much  milder  than 
up  on  the  Yukon  and  the  summer  season  nearly  a  month 
longer.  Not  much  has  been  done  in  experimentation  there, 
but  It  is  believed  by  those  who  know  most  about  this  coun- 
try that  it  will  produce  sonic  of  the  food  vegetables  prof- 
itably antl  that,  while  they  may  not  always   rljicn,   oats, 


266 


ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 


barley  and  rye  will  produce  abundant  forage  crops  for 
cattle.  A  thousand  head  of  cattle  were  driven  over  the 
Dalton  trail  three  years  ago  to  Dawson,  skirting  this 
region  on  the  east,  and  subsisting  all  the  way  on  the  native 


Potatoes  from  Kadiak 

grasses.  They  arrived  in  Dawson  in  good  condition  with 
a  loss  of  only  i  per  cent.  The  mail-carriers  who  cross  the 
Tanana  from  Valdez  to  Eagle  report  that  oats  spilled 
where  they  have  fed  their  pack  horses  spring  up  and  head 
out  the  next  season.  I  saw  a  bunch  of  this  grain  at  Forty- 
Mile  on  the  Yukon,  which  w^as  three  and  a  half  feet  high 
and  headed,  but  the  grains  were  light.  The  plant  would 
make  good  forage,  however. 


AGRICULTURAL  POSSIBILITIES         267 

In  view  of  the  radical  and  repeated  revision  of  opinion 
which  has  become  necessary  in  recent  years  with  regard  to 
the  agricultural  possibilities  of  our  Northwest  in  the  States 
and  in  Canada,  as  the  producing  area  has  gradually 
forced  its  way  northward  through  Minnesota,  the  Dakotas 
and  Canada,  I  am  not  disposed  to  question  the  claims  of 
those  who  contend  that  the  time  will  come  when  the  Tan- 
ana  valley  will  be  settled  by  farmers  who  will  produce 
the  meat,  and  dairy  and  poultry  products,  and  a  large 
share  of  the  vegetables  and  small  fruits  consumed  in  the 
interior  mining  districts  of  Alaska.  What  this  will  mean 
as  an  aid  to  the  mining  development  of  Alaska  can  scarcely 
be  overstated.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  Alaska 
will  ever  export  any  of  these  products,  but  if  her  ranchmen 
can  supply  the  home  market  in  these  respects,  it  will  be  of 
the  highest  importance  to  this  country. 

In  considering  the  agricultural  possibilities  of  these 
northern  latitudes  where,  of  course,  the  season  is  short, 
proper  allowance  must  be  made  tor  the  amount  of  sun- 
shine the  plant  gets  during  the  long  summer  days.  In  the 
Tanana  and  Yukon  valleys,  for  instance,  the  sun  shines 
from  eighteen  to  twenty-two  hours  during  June  and  July, 
and  not  infrequently  the  temperature  rises  to  90  degrees. 
The  same  facts  of  nature  which  explain  rapid  and  won- 
derful plant  growth  in  our  own  Northwest  and  in  Canada 
are  found  in  portions  of  Alaska.  I  have  seen  wheat  as  far 
advanced  along  the  North  j-ork  of  the  Saskatchewan  on 
the  20th  of  June  as  it  was  in  central  Minnesota  at  the 
same  time.  Ihere,  with  gooil  soil,  of  which  there  is  no 


268 


ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 


lack,  the  long  hours  of  sunshine  each  day  bring  forward 
the  wheat  plant  with  surprising  rapidity,  while  the  roots 
are  so  well  fed  with  the  moisture  coming  out  of  the  grad- 
ually thawing  ground  that  the  danger  from  drought  is 
almost  entirely  eliminated.  Very  similar  conditions  seem 
to  exist  in  Alaska,  where  the  ground  is  frozen  to  such  a 


Varieties  of  Oats  Grown  at  Sitka 

depth  that  the  thawing  and  moisture-producing  process 
is  going  on  all  through  the  summer.  The  evidence  is  seen 
in  the  wild  grasses,  which  grow  annually  to  a  height  of 
three  or  four  feet,  and  sometimes  even  higher.  As  for  the 
soil,  it  resembles  that  of  hilly  countries  in  lower  latitudes, 
light  and  sandy  on  the  elevations,  but  heavier  and  richer 


AGRICULTURAL  POSSIBILITIES         269 

in  the  valleys.  In  a  natural  state  the  ground  is  covered 
in  large  part  with  a  thick  matted  growth  of  grass  and 
vines  and  moss,  so  thick  that  it  feels  to  the  tread  as  if  one 
were  walking  on  a  sponge.  This  matted  vegetable  growth 
is  moist  in  summer  from  the  surface  thawing  of  the  frozen 
ground,  but  when  this  thick  covering  is  cut  away  and  the 
sun  is  given  a  chance  to  reach  the  ground,  the  soil  is 
thawed  to  a  greater  depth  and  the  surface  dries  out. 

Alaska  has  not  been  surveyed,  and  cannot  be  successfully 
on  the  township  and  section  plan  in  vogue  on  our  western 
prairies.  The  Gov^ernment  has  established  320  acres  as  the 
size  of  a  homestead  claim,  but  in  the  course  of  time  it  will 
be  necessary  to  adopt  the  system  of  land  surveys  to  the 
topography  of  the  country,  surveying  only  the  valleys 
which  may  be  found  adapted  to  agriculture  with  reference 
to  the  water-courses  and  the  "  lay  of  the  land,"  and  with- 
out regard  to  towns  and  ranges  or  conformity  to  estab- 
lished lines  of  latitude  and  longitude. 

Professor  George  C.  Georgeson,  formerly  special  agent 
of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  in  Alaska,  is  regarded 
as  something  of  an  enthusiast.  Perhaps  he  is.  But  he  has 
studied  the  agricultural  possibilities  of  the  country  more 
than  anybody  else,  and  is  the  best  authority  obtainable  on 
this  subject.  He  contends  that  it  is  a  great  mistake  to 
underestimate  the  agricultural  resources  of  Alaska;  that 
"there  are  100,000  square  miles  of  territory  in  Alaska 
admirably  adapted  to  agriculture.  There  could  never  be 
a  greater  misconception  in  regard  to  a  geographical  fact 
than  the  popular  idea  that  Alaska  is  a  snow-covered  waste. 


oyo         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

As  a  'matter  of  fact,  one  can  travel  from  one  end  of  the 
Yukon  to  the  other  in  summer  and  never  see  snow  except 
on  the  mountains.  On  the  contrary,  one  will  see  a  tangle 
cf  luxuriant  vegetation,  large  forests,  and  such  delicacies 
as  wild  raspberries,  red  currants,  huckleberries,  and  cran- 
berries in  profusion.  In  places  the  grass  grows  as  high  as 
a  man's  shoulders." 

Dr.  R.  A.  F.  Penrose,  of  Philadelphia,  a  mining  en- 
gineer, who  has  studied  conditions  in  northern  latitudes 
in  Europe  and  Asia  as  well  as  in  America,  came  to  Daw- 
son while  our  party  was  there  in  July.  In  speaking  of  the 
resources  of  Alaska  he  said  to  the  Dawson  Nezis: 

"  I  notice  the  United  States  senatorial  committee  now 
in  Dawson  is  gathering  data  as  to  the  agricultural  possi- 
bilities of  x-Xlaska.  Some  may  think  this  a  waste  of  time. 
I  believe  not.  I  have  travelled  across  Siberia  and  have 
made  careful  study  of  its  great  undertakings  in  agricul- 
tural pursuits.  In  a  latitude  of  65  degrees  north,  one 
nearer  the  Pole  than  Dawson,  the  Russians  raise  barley, 
oats,  and  other  cereals  with  great  success.  Barley  is  the 
most  successful  cereal.  Vegetables  of  all  kinds  thrive,  and 
are  as  fine  as  those  raised  in  any  other  part  of  the  world. 

"  The  ground  here  thaws  two  or  three  feet  below  the 
surface  in  summer.  In  parts  of  Siberia  where  such  success 
has  been  had  in  farming,  the  frost  disappears  to  a  depth 
no  greater  than  nine  inches. 

"  The  people  of  Siberia  learned  what  to  grow  there 
to  best  advantage  by  a  process  of  selection  reached  by 
experiments  extending  through  perhaps  hundreds  of  years. 


AGRICULTURAL  POSSIBILITIES         271 

The  greatest  argument  in  support  of  the  agricultural  suc- 
cess in  Siberia  is  that  the  country  supports  a  population 
of  12,000,000  people,  twice  as  many  as  Canada.  That 
is  sufficient  to  show  the  land  is  by  no  means  a  waste.  Of 
course  it  is  twice  as  large  as  the  United  States,  and  the 
population  is  scattered.  But  several  cities  of  20,000  to 
60,000  arc  maintained." 

In  condemning  Alaska  as  an  uninhabitable  region  we 
sometimes  forget  that  a  large  part  of  the  great  empire 
of  Russia  lies  in  the  same  latitude.  The  province  of  Arch- 
angel, which  lies  farther  north  than  the  Tanana,  or  the 
greater  part  of  the  Yukon  valley,  has  a  population  of 
350,000.  The  city  of  Archangel  has  20,000  people,  and 
the  province  exports  considerable  (]uantlties  of  grain,  flax, 
fish,  skins  and  tar.  The  climate  Is  quite  as  severe  as  that 
of  Alaska. 

I  do  not  care  to  be  regarded  as  a  believer  In  large  agri- 
cultural possibilities  for  Alaska,  but  I  am  Impressed  with 
the  probability  that  in  the  interior  of  that  remote  country, 
where  food  supplies  from  the  States  must  always  be  ex- 
pensive, it  will  be  practicable  and  profitable  to  produce 
meat  ami  dairy  and  j)oultry  and  garden  protlucts  in  such 
quantity  and  at  such  prices  as  to  solve  the  problem  of 
development  of  large  areas  of  gold-bearing  gravel. 

In  the  course  of  a  public  hearing  at  Nome,  wlici-e  the 
senatorial  counnlttcc  sat  to  hear  the  statement  ol  miners 
and  business  nien  as  lo  what  Congress  eouKI  do  (o  lorward 
the  dexelopment  of  Alaska,  judge  Dubose,  an  Inlluentlal 
member  of  the  Nome  bar  antl  attorney   for  one  ol    the 


272         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

transportation  companies,  said  that  in  the  Nome  district 
ahout  20,000  claims  had  been  staked  and  recorded,  and 
that  only  about  500  were  being  worked  to  any  extent  at 
all;  and  that  represents  a  state  of  things  general  through- 
out Alaska,  though  probably  not  quite  so  much  accentu- 
ated in  other  sections  as  on  the  Seward  Peninsula.  The 
trouble  is  that  the  mining  laws  operate  adversely  to  the 
interests  of  the  real  miner.  At  Seattle  and  Juneau  and 
Skagway  and  Eagle  and  Rampart  and  Nome — ev^ery- 
where  there  was  complaint  of  abuses  of  privilege  made 
easy  by  the  operation  of  laws  that  do  not  fit  the  case. 
Under  the  mining  law  in  Alaska  a  prospector  may  fill  his 
pockets  with  powers  of  attorney  before  he  starts  out,  and 
when  he  thinks  he  has  found  something  worth  while  he 
may  not  only  stake  In  his  own  name,  but  In  the  names  of 
all  his  friends  who  have  made  him  their  agent.  These 
claims  are  recorded,  and  all  the  area  covered  by  them  Is 
monopolised.  There  would  be  less  objection  to  that  If  It 
were  not  for  the  fact  that  the  requirements  as  to  devel- 
opment work  are  so  loose  that  the  claimant  may  escape 
.  "5  th^  necessity  of  doing  anything  for  a  year,  and  under  cer- 
j  ^  tain  circumstances  for  two  years.  Then  all  that  Is  really 
I  ^  necessary  is  for  the  original  claimant  to  change  names  on 
[  the  claims  and  record  again  for  another  year  or  two  years, 

'  j\  as  the  case  may  be.  Neither  the  original  claimant  nor  his 
principals  are  obliged  to  do  any  development  work  so 
•>long  as  the  list  of  names  holds  out,  and  the  name  of  a 
claimant  may,  In  course  of  time,  be  transferred  from  one 
piece  of  property  to  another  till  a  dozen  pieces  or  more 


AGRICULTURAL  POSSIBILITIES         273 

may  have  stcod  in  his  name  without  anything  being  done 
to  develop  any  of  them. 

Now,  the  law  intended  that  every  claimant  should  do 
at  least  $100  worth  of  dev^elopment  work  on  his  claim 
every  year;  but  even  where  there  is  some  pretence  of  com- 
pliance, there  is  often  no  practical  result.  Labour,  figured 
at  $10  a  day,  with  time  spent  in  going  to  and  returning 
from  the  claim,  may  result  in  moving  a  few  shovelfuls  of 
dirt,  but  it  means  nothing  in  the  development  of  the 
country. 

But  it  may  be  asked,  Why  do  men  take  claims  if  not 
to  work  them  and  get  something  out  of  them?  In  order 
to  take  advantage  of  the  labour  of  somebody  else,  gen- 
erally. These  i9,<;oo  claims  that  Judge  Dubose  referred 
to  are  held  generally  by  people  who  are  waiting  for  some- 
body else  to  do  something  that  shall  establish  their  value. 
The  result  is  that  the  country  is  nearly  all  staked  and  tiled 
on  where  there  is  any  prospect  of  finding  gold,  and  the 
late-comer  has  no  show,  no  matter  how  willing  he  may 
be  to  go  ahead  and  develop  what  he  stakes. 

Another  handicap  to  the  development  of  the  country 
is  the  fact  that  the  claim  markings  are  not  permanent  but 
are  easily  obliterated,  ami  In  addition  to  that  the  system 
of  describing  and  recording  claims  Is  so  Indefinite  and  un- 
systematic that  there  is  no  way  to  tell  certainly,  when  a 
claim  is  filed,  whether  the  same  ground  has  ever  been  liicd 
on  before  or  not.  This  leads  to  endless  litigation  aiui,  In 
fact,  invites  it  when  a  claim  proves  to  be  valuahlc.  ( )nc 
valuable  mine  was  visited  at  Nome  to  which  the  i)rcsent 


274         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

owners  had  bought  six  different  titles.  That  Is  to  say,  six 
different  chiimants  were  able  to  make  it  appear,  through 
the  looseness  of  the  system  of  describing  and  recording, 
that  they  had  claims  which  they  were  disposed  to  contest 
in  the  courts.  The  door  is  opened  wide  to  unlimited  ex- 
tortion by  unscrupulous  men,  and  those  who  would  be 
glad  to  put  money  into  the  development  and  operation 
of  mines  are  afraid  to  do  so.  It  would  mean  millions  of 
development  and  output  to  the  Nome  district  every  year 
if  this  dog-in-the-manger  business  could  be  stopped. 

Perhaps  I  have  referred  often  enough  to  the  better 
methods  they  hav^e  adopted  in  Yukon  territory  on  the 
Canadian  side,  but  when  studying  conditions  at  Nome  I 
could  not  avoid  contrasting  the  miserable  tangle  in  which 
the  titles  to  mining  property  are  involved  there  wnth  the 
well-devised  system  at  Dawson,  where  in  the  gold  com- 
missioner's office  it  is  possible  at  any  time  to  find  the  exact 
legal  status  of  any  piece  of  property  in  the  Klondike. 
Descriptions  are  definite,  double  filing  on  the  same  piece 
of  property  practically  impossible,  the  claimant  is  pro- 
tected in  the  title  to  his  property  so  long  as  the  books 
show  a  clear  record,  powers  of  attorney  are  not  recognised 
in  taking  mining  claims,  no  claimant  may  file  on  more 
than  one  claim  on  the  same  creek,  and  failure  to  keep 
up  development  or  assessment  work  forfeits  title,  and, 
as  I  recall  it,  it  may  not  be  renewed  by  the  same  claimant. 
I  know  there  is  complaint  by  Americans  of  favouritism 
and  corruption  in  the  Klondike;  but,  conceding  a  good 
deal  of  both,  the  system  in  vogue  there  is  much  more 


AGRICULTURAL  POSSIBILITIES         275 

business-like  and  satisfactory  than  the  methods  pursued 
on  the  Alaska  side  of  the  boundary.  An  illustration  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  interests  of  Alaska  arc  neglected, 
which  any  one  can  appreciate,  is  afforded  by  the  fact  that 
nowhere  in  that  whole  district  is  there  such  an  officer  as 
the  gold  commissioner  of  Yukon  territory,  to  whom  the 
investor  or  prospector  can  go  for  information  about  a 
mining  enterprise  or  a  new  strike. 

I  have  taken  the  space  to  note  only  a  few  of  the  faults 
of  the  mining  laws,  as  seen  from  the  standpoint  of  a  lay- 
man. The  senatorial  committee  was  so  much  impressed 
by  the  necessity  of  radical  revision  of  the  laws  as  applied 
to  Alaska  that  they  asked  the  bar  of  Nome  to  formulate 
a  practically  new  code  and  send  it  to  them  at  Washington 
for  their  guidance  in  legislation  on  this  subject. 

Our  last  stopping-place  was  Sitka.  Meanwhile  the 
McCulloch  has  passed  through  Peril  Straits,  named  be- 
cause of  the  hazards  of  navigation  there,  to  Juneau,  to 
which  city,  visited  on  our  upward  voyage  to  Skagway,  the 
committee  returned  in  accordance  with  a  promise  to  come 
back  and  give  the  business  men  there  a  chance  to  be  heard 
on  the  needs  of  Alaska.  With  her  prow  cutting  the  quiet 
waters  of  the  inside  channel,  we  are  now  bound  tor  Seattle 
and  home. 


XITI 
INDIANS  OF  ALASKA 

A  MORE  striking  illustration  of  the  operation  of  the 
cruel  law  of  the  "  survnval  of  the  fittest "  is 
'  seldom  found  than  is  afforded  by  the  condition 
of  the  Indians  and  Eskimos  of  Alaska  since  the  white  man 
learned  there  was  gold  in  their  country.  The  Indian  is 
falling  back  everywhere  before  the  advance  of  the  white 
man,  but  nowhere  has  his  retreat  been  converted  into  such 
an  almost  complete  rout  as  in  Alaska.  The  years  1898 
and  1899  witnessed  the  great  rush  to  the  gold  fields  of 
Alaska,  and  it  is  estimated  that  the  Indian  and  Eskimo 
population  has  been  reduced  by  death  fully  40  per  cent, 
during  the  past  six  years.  I  question  these  appalling  fig- 
ures, but  the  estimate  is  hazarded  by  more  than  one  who 
has  had  opportunity  to  observe  the  condition  of  these  un- 
happy people. 

But,  granting  all  that  ought  to  be  allowed  for  exaggera- 
tion, it  is  not  difficult  for  any  one  who  has  travelled  ex- 
tensively through  that  country  to  see  that  there  has  been 
a  frightful  decimation  of  the  native  population,  and  to 
understand  some  of  the  reasons  for  it.  The  deserted  vil- 
lages and  the  wretched  condition  of  nearly  all  that  retain 
a  remnant  of  their  former  population  tell  a  sad  and  pitiful 
story.  When  the  Russian  came  he  brought  with  him  vices 

276 


w 


ayS         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

and  diseases  which  wrought  havoc,  and  in  the  frequent 
clashes  at  amis  the  natives  suffered  heavy  losses.  But  the 
Russian  was  merciful  compared  to  the  American.  The 
Russian  had  use  for  the  native,  and  after  a  time  the  trade 
relation  was  so  well  established  that  the  native  derived 
something  of  profit  from  it. 

When  the  American  came  the  fur  trade  had  declined, 
and  the  contact  of  the  two  races  meant  little  to  the  weaker 
one  except  further  demoralisation  and  ruin  through  vice 
and  disease.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  original  con- 
dition of  the  natives  of  Alaska  had  been  free  from  the 
consequences  of  immorality  and  ignorance,  but  their  con- 
dition was  such  as  to  cause  them  to  fall  an  easy  prey  to 
all  the  demoralising  influences  which  usually  attend  the 
first  wave  of  the  white  man's  civilisation.  We  have  seen 
the  same  thing  within  our  own  borders.  Our  "  century 
of  dishonour  "  has  written  its  record  of  injustice  and 
wrong  done  to  the  Indians  here  in  our  own  country  in 
lines  of  ineffaceable  disgrace,  but  the  hand  illumination, 
so  to  speak,  has  been  put  in  since  Alaska  became  ours. 

And  yet  no  people  ever  deserved  better  of  their  con- 
querors. Long  before  the  American  invasion  in  search 
of  gold  commenced,  the  tribal  organisation,  so  far  as  it 
had  existed,  had  been  pretty  well  broken  up,  and  the 
native  population  presented  an  unresisting  front.  Not 
only  so,  but  there  is  among  them  a  natural  disposition  to 
hospitality  and  generosity  which  should  have  insured  them 
kindness  and  consideration  in  return,  but  which  has  often 
only  encouraged  imposition  and  wrong.   Our  Government 


INDIANS  OF  ALASKA  279 

has  not  been  entirely  Insensible  of  Its  obligations  in  this 
connection.  It  has  tried  to  do  something  for  the  education 
of  the  Indian,  and  a  law  was  enacted  at  one  time  prohibit- 
ing the  sale  of  liquor  to  any  one  In  Alaska,  with  such 
results  as  might  have  been  expected.  Enforcement  of  the 
law  was  so  utterly  Impossible  under  the  circumstances  that 
It  was  repealed,  but  not  till  the  Indians  had  been  taught 
the  art  of  manufacturing  extensively  the  vilest  and  most 
dangerous  concoctions,  which  they  consumed  In  practically 
unrestricted  quantities.  I  do  not  mean  to  assume  that  they 
would  not  have  obtained  liquor  under  a  license  system,  or 
would  not  have  learned  to  manufacture  the  demonising 
substitutes,  but  the  prohibitory  law,  with  Its  utter  imprac- 
ticability on  that  far  frontier,  furnishes  an  illustration  of 
the  failure  of  the  Government  to  protect  these  people  of 
the  North  from  the  almost  certain  consequences  of  their 
ignorance  and  childish  helplessness  In  the  presence  of 
many  of  the  representatives  of  a  superior  race,  who  forgot 
to  take  their  consciences  with  them  when  they  went  to 
meet  the  native  and  exploit  him  for  their  own  benefit. 

Some  of  the  ways  in  which  the  white  man  debauches  the 
native  Alaskans  cannot  be  particularised  in  this  place,  but 
the  consequences  are  in  evidence  in  distressing  frequency 
there.  Nor  are  the  native  Alaskans  falling  like  leaves  of 
the  forest  before  the  ills  incident  to  Immorality  alone,  for 
it  will  never  be  known  what  frightful  fatalities  followed 
an  epidemic  of  measles  which  swept  o\er  Alaska  three 
years  ago.  Gaining  a  foothold  in  one  place,  It  was  quickly 
carried  from  village  to  village  and   from  barabarra   to 


28o         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

igloo.  Unacquainted  with  the  nature  of  the  malady,  and 
ignorant  of  any  remedy  other  than  the  incantations  and 
tricks  of  the  shaman,  the  fatalities  were  numbered  by  the 
thousands. 

When  the  Indians  of  Alaska  had  their  country  to  them- 
selves they  subsisted  upon  the  fish  and  game  and  wild 
fruits  which  the  country  produced,  and,  though  never 
numerous,  w^re  thrifty  and  strong  in  numbers  compared 
to  their  present  decadent  state.  Dried  and  smoked  salmon 
dipped  In  rancid  seal  oil  is  still  a  delicacy  as  w^ell  as  a 
staple,  but  to  their  menu  of  game  and  fish  and  wild  berries 
they  have  added  flour  and  tea  and  coffee  and  sugar  and 
bacon.  Their  appliances  and  methods  of  cooking  seem 
not  to  be  as  well  adapted  to  these  articles  as  to  their 
native  foods;  at  all  events,  they  do  not  seem  to  nourish 
them  well,  either  from  lack  of  quantity  or  lack  of  intelli- 
gent preparation.  I  do  not  know  just  w^hy  it  is,  but  it  is 
the  general  verdict  that  the  "  Boston  man's  "  food,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  "  Boston  man's  "  drinks,  has  not  been  to 
the  native's  advantage.  When  he  was  the  sole  occupant 
of  the  country  he  clothed  himself  in  skins  and  was  com- 
fortable in  the  long  and  sev^ere  winters,  but  since  the  white 
man  has  come  in  such  numbers  he  has  begun  to  imitate 
him  in  dress.  He  has  discarded  his  furs  and  shivers  and 
contracts  pneumonia  and  consumption  in  the  white  man's 
clothing,  of  which  he  gets  only  the  poorest  quality  and 
not  enough  of  it.  The  ravages  of  pulmonary  diseases  h^ve 
been  heavy,  and  these  disorders  are  so  prevalent  as  to 
prevent  white  parents  from  allowing  their  children  to  go 


-82         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

to  the  same  schools  with  the  native  children,  even  when 
there  are  no  other  schools  a\ailable. 

Industry  and  forehandedness  are  lessons  which  they,  in 
common  with  other  natives  of  America,  have  never 
learned,  but  they  are  more  indolent  and  careless  of  the 
future  from  their  disposition  to  do  as  the  white  man  does. 
They  pitch  their  tents  in  summer  near  the  white  man's 
towns,  and  hang  around  the  streets,  sometimes  selling  a 
few  trinkets  and  often  cheated  out  of  the  trifling  sums 
they  get  for  them  through  their  propensity  for  gambling. 
They  see  the  streets  of  the  mining  towns  like  Nome  full 
of  idle  men,  and  seeing  that  these  men  apparently  live 
without  work,  seem  to  think  they  can  and  ought  to  do 
so,  too. 

For  these  people  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
has  done  practically  nothing,  while  legislation  conceived 
in  the  interest  of  white  men  has  pretty  nearly  destroyed 
their  most  productive  source  of  revenue.  The  game  laws 
hav^e  operated  disastrously  to  their  declining  trade  in  furs 
by  making  It  unlawful  to  kill  some  of  the  most  important 
fur-bearing  animals  when  their  pelts  are  at  their  best,  and 
prohibiting  the  white  traders  to  deal  in  them  or  send  them 
to  market.  It  is  charged  also  that  these  game  laws  are 
taken  advantage  of  by  some  unscrupulous  dealers  to  beat 
down  the  prices  paid  the  Indians  for  such  as  are  bought, 
on  the  ground  that  the  traflSc  is  dangerous  and  that  there- 
fore the  dealer  cannot  afford  to  take  the  risk  unless  he 
gets  his  goods  at  very  low  figures.  From  both  standpoints 
the  operation  of  the  law  bears  hardest  upon  the  native. 


284         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

This  is  a  sample  of  legislation  enacted  at  Washington 
by  a  body  of  men  few  of  whom  have  ever  taken  the  pains 
to  visit  the  country  personally  and  see  enough  of  it  and 
its  needs  to  make  laws  intelligently  for  its  government. 

There  are  four  different  families  or  groups  of  the 
natives  of  Alaska.  Ethnologically  they  are  an  interesting 
study,  but  there  is  no  room  here  to  consider  them  from 
that  standpoint.  The  native  of  northern  and  northwestern 
Alaska  is  an  Eskimo,  and  often  exhibits  strong  resem- 
blances to  some  of  the  people  of  Asia,  particularly  the 
Japs.  An  illustration  of  a  dance  in  the  kazhim  or  village 
council-house,  on  St.  Michael  Island,  shows  the  prom- 
inence of  the  Japanese  features.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
Aleutian  Islands  are  another  group,  and  those  of  the  far 
interior  are  known  by  the  various  names  of  Innuits  or 
Tinnehs  or  Athabaskans.  On  the  south  coast  and  on  the 
islands  of  the  archipelago  are  a  number  of  small  groups 
known  under  the  general  name  of  Thlinkets.  Among 
these  are  the  Chilkats,  the  Haidahs,  and  the  Tsimsheans. 
The  more  remote  the  more  friendly  and  hospitable  they 
appear  to  be,  while  those  nearest  bear  more  resemblance 
to  the  warlike  tribes  of  our  western  frontier. 

While  we  have  not  hesitated  to  drive  back  the  Indians 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  United  States  from  one  place 
to  another  as  white  settlement  has  advanced  across  the 
continent  from  east  to  west,  we  have  made  some  pretence 
of  recognising  the  rights  of  the  original  possessors  of 
the  land.  We  have  purchased  lands  and  made  treaties, 
and  have  established  reservations  and  rendered  so-called 


INDIANS  OF  ALASKA  285 

equivalents  in  the  way  of  rations  and  clothing.  The  Indian 
of  the  States  has  become  a  ward  of  the  nation,  with  a 
bureau  in  one  of  the  departments  at  Washington  and 
agents  on  the  reservations  to  see  that  he  gets  what  we  have 
conceded  he  is  entitled  to. 

Of  all  these  things  not  one,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able 
to  learn,  has  ever  been  done  for  the  Alaskans.  The  land 
was  theirs  before  the  Russians  claimed  it  in  the  name  of 
the  Emperor,  but  no  rights  of  possession  *  were  ever 
recognised,  except  in  the  one  instance  where  Baranof,  for 
policy's  sake,  offered  to  purchase  ground  enough  from  the 
Sitkans  on  which  to  erect  his  buildings  for  a  Russian 
trading-post,  though  at  the  same  time  assuring  the  chief 
that  his  master,  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  claimed  all  the 
country  and  was  well  disposed  toward  his  subjects,  the 
natives  of  Alaska.  When  Alaska  came  into  possession  of 
the  United  States  we  were  all  such  imperialists  that 
nobody  thought  to  consult  the  wishes  of  the  natives  in 
the  matter.  But  surely  the  assumption  of  sovereignty  im- 
plied some  responsibilities  and  obligations  to  the  natives 
of  the  country.  I'he  only  evidence  that  the  Cjovernment 
acknowledges  any  obligations  to  them  is  the  small  amount 
of  money  expended  for  Indian  schools. 

The  educational  work  done  by  the  Government  in 
Alaska,  outside  of  the  incorporated  towns,  is  carried  on 
mainly  in  connection  with  the  se\-eral  mission  stations  of 

*Judge  James  Wickersham  of  the  central  judicial  division  has  decided  that  Russian  half- 
breeds  and  native  Eskimos  are  citizens.  The  chief  benefit  will  be  to  clothe  them  with 
power  to  take  mining  claims,  acquire  title  to  other  real  property,  take  out  licenses  as  pilots 
and  shipmasters,  and  the  like. 


286  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

the  various  religious  denominations.  I  his  involves  the  ap- 
propriation ot  public  funds  to  the  support  of  sectarian 
schools,  but  as  all  denominations  share  according  to  their 
school  attendance  there  is  no  ground  for  complaint  by  any 
of  them,  although  the  collaboration  of  the  church  and 
state  in  matters  of  education  is  generally  recognised  as 
dangerous.  However,  it  is  the  only  way  in  which  the 
work  of  educating  the  children  of  the  natives  could  be 
accomplished.  Men  and  women  inspired  by  religious  zeal 
will  incur  hardships  and  make  sacrifices  in  this  work  which 
would  not  be  endured  by  teachers  influenced  chiefly  by 
financial  considerations.  The  Government,  however,  exer- 
cises a  degree  of  supervision  over  all  these  schools,  and 
encourages  education  not  only  in  the  common  branches 
of  the  ordinary  rural  school,  but  in  such  simple  arts  as 
are  likely  to  be  most  useful  to  the  pupil.  These  schools 
are  not  always  entirely  Indian  schools.  It  often  happens 
that  children  of  white  parents  and  Russian  Creoles  are 
attendants  with  the  Indian  children.  Notable  among  the 
schools  w^here  industrial  training  is  given  are  Holy  Cross 
Mission  at  Koserefsky,  on  the  Yukon,  and  in  the  Sitka 
Industrial  School.  These  institutions  teach  the  boys  the 
use  of  tools,  the  raising  of  crops,  and  the  rudiments  of 
several  trades,  while  the  girls  are  taught  sewing  and  house- 
keeping. The  opportunities  for  making  use  of  this  indus- 
trial training  are  not  as  many  as  could  be  desired  for  either 
boys  or  girls,  but  the  boys  have  more  chances  to  apply 
their  knowledge  in  gainful  occupations  than  girls.  The 
fate  of  the  educated  Indian  girl  is  often  one  that  cannot 


Eskimo  Woman  and  Child 


28S         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

be  contemplated  with  satisfaction,  and  this  is  true  not  only 
in  Alaska,  but  among  the  Indians  in  the  States.  Incor- 
porated towns  maintain  public  schools  of  the  usual  plan 
and  scope.  Outside  of  these  towns  there  are  thirty-three 
of  these  so-called  public  schools,  although  connected  in 
nearly  every  instance  with  some  church  mission,  and 
having  an  enrollment  of  2,100  pupils. 

And  yet  it  is  not  fair  to  conclude  that  the  Indians  of 
Alaska  cannot  be  taught  to  be  useful  and  self-supporting. 
Reference  was  made  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  story  of 
the  tour  of  the  senatorial  committee  to  the  unique  settle- 
ment known  as  Metlakahtla,  on  Annette  Island,  one  of 
the  most  southerly  in  the  American  portion  of  the  south- 
west archipelago.  Here  the  Indian  problem  has  been 
worked  out  with  the  most  satisfactory  results,  and  the 
successful  experiment  is  valuable  as  evidence  of  what  the 
Alaska  Indian  is  capable  of. 

William  Duncan  came  to  Port  Simpson  as  a  lay  mission- 
ary in  1857,  when  the  port  was  an  important  Hudson 
Bay  Company's  trading-post.  He  found  there  a  com- 
munity of  Indians  of  the  lowest  character.  They  were 
cannibals  on  occasion.  He  began  by  learning  the  language 
of  these  Tsimsheans.  Then  he  commenced  to  teach  them 
not  only  religion  but  industry.  More  unpromising  material 
out  of  which  to  make  civilised.  Christianised,  and  prac- 
tical men  and  women,  supporting  themselves  by  the  arts 
of  civilised  life,  could  not  be  found  on  the  American  con- 
tinent. The  Aleuts  and  Eskimos  and  Tinnehs  of  the  more 
northern  latitudes  are  refined  and  cultivated  by  comparl- 


290         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

son  with  these  savage  Tsimsheans  when  Father  Duncan 
began  his  patient  and  persistent  work  among  them. 

Unhappily,  too,  he  had  to  contend,  not  only  with  the 
ignorance  and  superstition  and  cannlbahsm  of  the  Indians 
themselves,  but  with  a  narrow  ecclesiasticism  which  finally 
drove  him  and  his  Indians  from  old  Metlakahtla  on  the 
British  side  to  the  new  Metlakahtla  on  the  American  side, 
to  which  they  removed  seventeen  years  ago.  William 
Duncan  was  a  layman,  and  he  had  always  conducted  his 
religious  services  according  to  the  simplest  forms,  thus 
proving  that  the  spectacular  in  religion  Is  not  necessary 
to  reach  the  Indian. 

A  high-church  priest  sent  to  oversee  his  work  under- 
took to  introduce  forms  and  ceremonies  and  the  sacrament 
of  the  Lord's  Supper,  which  Father  Duncan,  for  sufficient 
and  not  very  obscure  reasons,  had  thought  best  not  to 
inaugurate  just  yet  among  these  savages  so  shortly  re- 
claimed from  cannibalism.  He  opposed  the  Innovations 
of  the  new  priest,  and  the  Indians,  w'ho  had  come  to 
regard  him  with  love  and  veneration,  supported  him.  The 
early  result  was  a  division  and  a  new  church,  with  Father 
Duncan  at  the  head  and  nearly  all  the  Indians  in  it.  Out 
of  this  finally  grew  a  controversy  about  their  property 
rights  In  their  church  and  their  homes.  When  the  Indians 
found  that  they  could  get  no  title  to  either,  and  arrange- 
ments had  been  made  by  Father  Duncan  with  the  United 
States  Government  by  w^hich  they  could  have  Annette 
Island  as  the  property  of  their  community,  they  left  old 
Metlakahtla,  where  they  had  built  houses  and  a  church 


INDIANS  OF  ALASKA 


291 


and  had  established  several  simple  industries.  They  took 
with  them  only  their  personal  belongings  and  set  out  in 
their  canoes  to  commence  all  over  again — and  yet  not 
where    they    started    under 
Father       Duncan's       guid- 
ance,   for    they    couki    not 
be  robbed  of  their  religion 
or    the    advancement    they 
had  made  in  civilisation. 

It  is  a  pathetic  story 
which  recounts  the  sacri- 
fices they  made  for  their 
religious  and  communal  lib- 
erty. The  Pilgrim  fathers 
in  their  migration  to  a 
new  world  for  conscience' 
sake  were  scarcely  more 
heroic  in  spirit  than  these 
pilgrims  of  Metlakahtla. 
The  work  of  thirty  years 
of  toilsome  and  patient 
struggle  up  the  long  and 
weary  pathway  which  they 
had  climbed  from  a  state 
of  savagery  to  the  condi- 
tion of  an  orderly,  law- 
abiding,  and  self-governing  Christian  community — all 
they  had  achieved  as  represented  in  a  neat  and  w  i.ll-hiiilt 
village,    which    compclkHJ    the    admiration    of    tra\ellers 


Father  Duncan 


292         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

from  Europe  and  America — was  left  behind  to  begin  again 
in  the  wilderness. 

This  migration  took  place  in  1887,  and  no  people  have 
been  more  deeply  interested  and  none  so  vitally  concerned 
in  the  result  of  the  controversy  over  the  Alaskan  bound- 
ary, which  might  have  left  them  in  British  territory  and 
raised  again  the  question  of  their  title  to  their  homes, 
and  their  church  and  schools  and  factories. 

Father  Duncan's  theory  of  elevation  of  the  Indian  was 
not  to  teach  him  religion  alone,  but  to  instruct  him  in 
crafts  and  occupations  which  should  make  him  a  self-sup- 
porting and  self-respecting  man.  This  was  undertaken 
long  before  the  migration  of  1887.  In  1870  Father 
Duncan  went  back  to  England  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of 
several  simple  trades  that  he  might  instruct  his  people, 
and  to  purchase  such  tools  and  machinery  as  his  well-con- 
ceived plans  required.  At  Yarmouth  he  learned  rope- 
making  and  twine-spinning,  at  another  place  blacksmith- 
ing  and  brush-making;  he  learned  how  to  build  and 
operate  a  sawmill,  and  with  a  breadth  of  view  which  ex- 
plains in  part  his  wonderful  success,  he  learned  "  the 
gamut  on  each  of  twenty  band  instruments." 

New  Metlakahtla,  which  we  visited  on  the  upward 
passage  from  Seattle  to  Skagway,  is  to-day  a  village  of 
800  inhabitants.  The  most  conspicuous  object  is  the 
church,  a  fine-looking  frame  structure  capable  of  seating 
practically  the  whole  village.  This  house  was  built  entirely 
by  the  Indians.  It  would  compare  favourably  both  in  in- 
terior and  exterior  finish  with  the  average  church  building 


o 

6 

h 
u 


o 

h 


294         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

in  western  towns  of  2,000  people  =  There  are  a  school- 
house,  a  girls'  boarding-school,  a  town  hall,  several  stores, 
a  sawmill  run  by  water  power,  a  system  of  water-works,  a 
cannery  where  20,000  cases  of  salmon  can  be  packed  in 
one  season,  two  steam  vessels,  dock  and  warehouses,  side- 
walks, and  comfortable-looking  cottages  of  one  or  two 
stories  with  small  flower  and  vegetable  gardens. 

About  this  sawmill  Father  Duncan  tells  an  interesting 
story.  When  he  told  his  people  that  he  was  going  to  make 
w^ater  saw  wood,  they  were  very  sceptical,  notwithstanding 
their  great  faith  in  him.  One  old  man  who  had  survived 
the  days  of  cannibalism  said  he  would  never  believe  it. 
"  Wait,"  said  Father  Duncan,  "  and  you  will  see."  When 
the  mill  had  been  completed,  and  the  water  brought  down 
in  a  pipe  from  a  neighbouring  hill  and  turned  on  the 
wheel,  and  the  saw  had  cut  its  way  through  the  log  from 
one  end  to  the  other,  the  old  chief,  who  sat  and  watched 
the  operation  in  silence,  nodded  his  head  solemnly  and 
said:  "  I  have  seen  w^ater  saw  wood;  now  I  die."  "  Why 
do  you  want  to  die?  "  he  was  asked.  "  I  have  seen  water 
saw^  w^ood ;  now  I  die  and  take  the  news  to  the  chiefs 
w^ho  have  died  but  have  never  seen  water  saAv  wood." 

This  community  has  an  organisation  comprising  a 
council  of  thirty  members,  with  a  presiding  officer. 
Twenty  constables  constitute  the  police  department,  but 
their  services  are  seldom  needed.  Village  taxes  are  levied 
for  public  improvements  and  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
schools  and  hospital.  The  land  belongs  to  the  community, 
but  individuals  may  acquire  title  from  the  community  to 


INDIANS  OF  ALASKA  295 

land  on  which  to  build  their  houses.  Business  Is  done  on 
a  business  basis.  The  cannery  and  the  sawniill  belong  to 
companies  in  which  individual  Indians  have  stock  on 
which  they  receive  dividends,  and  the  employes  are  paid 
regular  wages  of  from  $1.50  to  $2  a  day.  The  people  are 
well  clothed,  and  the  general  appearance  of  things  Is  that 
of  comfort  and  content. 

One  of  the  features  of  the  village  is  a  band  of  twenty- 
one  pieces,  which  other  travellers  have  said  plays  well 
the  national  airs  and  other  simple  music.  It  was  a  matter 
of  keen  regret  to  the  leader  that  nearly  all  his  members 
were  away  fishing  when  we  called — he  would  have  been 
glad  to  give  us  a  serenade.  The  children  and  many  of  the 
adults  speak  English,  though  some  of  them  smash  it  up 
a  good  deal  In  the.  effort.  Father  Duncan  met  these  people 
first  on  the  ground  of  their  own  language,  and  did  not 
insist  on  trying  to  teach  them  English;  but  the  later  gen- 
eration has  made  some  progress  In  that  direction. 

This  is  only  the  outline  of  the  history  of  this  remark- 
able community,  and  It  is  introduced  here  not  because  it 
is  altogether  new,  but  because  it  Illustrates  what  has  been 
done  by  one  devoted  man  working  all  alone  and  contend- 
ing, at  times,  not  only  with  the  ignorance  and  superstition 
and  native  savagery  of  these  people,  but  with  narrow 
eccleslasticism  and  stupid  statesmanship,  antl  proxcs  what 
can  be  done  for  the  Indians  of  Alaska  by  well-directed 
effort. 

I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as  assuming  that  Father 
Duncan  is  the  only  (;nc  who  has  laboured  /calously   lor 


296         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

the  uplifting  of  the  Ahiskii  Indian.  I  have  already,  In  a 
previous  chapter,  described  the  work  of  the  Jesuit  Fathers 
at  Holy  Cross  Mission  on  the  Yukon,  and  I  do  not  wish 
to  underestimate  the  efforts  made  at  Anvik  and  at  St. 
Michael  and  at  Sitka  and  many  other  missionary  stations 
along  the  Yukon,  on  the  Seward  Peninsula  and  elsewhere, 
but  I  am  sure  that  nowhere  have  the  results  proven  more 
satisfactory  than  those  accomplished  at  Metlakahtla. 

And  yet  all  that  has  been  done  at  Metlakahtla  ought 
to  be  done  with  less  effort  almost  anywhere  else  in  Alaska, 
because  these  Tsimsheans  whom  Father  Duncan  has  civ- 
ilised were  originally  the  most  unpromising  of  all  the 
natives  of  northwest  America.  The  Alaska  Indian,  as  a 
rule — and  this  applies  to  all  the  different  families  or 
groups — is  an  inoffensive,  tractable,  lavishly  hospitable, 
honest,  simple-minded  fellow,  who  suffers  from  poverty 
and  often  from  imposition  by  the  white  man,  to  whom 
he  is  yet  ever  ready  to  render  kindness  when  called  upon 
to  do  so.  The  prospector  and  the  scientific  explorer  and 
the  mail-carrier  will  testify  to  his  honesty  and  the  gen- 
erosity with  which  he  receives  the  cold  and  suffering  trav- 
eller into  his  hut  and  yields  to  him  the  warmth  and  shelter 
and  food  which  have  saved  many  lives. 

Judge  McKenzie,  who  lives  up  at  Coldfoot,  on  the 
upper  Koyukuk,  nearly  100  miles  beyond  the  Arctic 
Circle,  told  me  at  Rampart  of  an  incident  which  illustrates 
the  disposition  of  the  Alaska  Indian.  A  poor  old  Kobuck 
known  as  Peter  saw  a  cartoon  of  Uncle  Sam  hanging  in  a 
store  at  Coldfoot,  in  w^hich  Uncle  Sam  was  represented 


Eskimo  Boy  and  Young  Malamute 


298         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

as  barefooted.  He  understood  that  it  was  a  picture  of  the 
Great  White  Father  at  Washington,  and  after  looking  at 
it  intently  for  a  long  time  he  pointed  to  the  naked  feet 
and  said:  "No  moccasins?"  "No,"  said  the  merchant, 
"  Uncle  Sam  hasn't  got  any  moccasins."  Peter  looked  very 
much  puzzled  and  distressed,  but  went  away  without 
further  words.  A  few  days  later  he  came  in  carrying  a 
pair  of  moccasins,  and,  holding  them  up,  and  pointing 
to  the  cartoon,  said:  "  Moccasins;  you  send  Uncle  Sam." 
The  people  of  Alaska  are  not  indifferent  to  the  just 
claims  of  the  Indians  upon  the  whites.  They  contribute 
to  their  necessities  whenever  they  know  of  the  existence 
of  want  and  suffering,  but  the  Indians  never  complain, 
and  their  sufferings  sometimes  end  in  death  because  the 
whites  are  ignorant  of  their  condition.  The  people  of  St. 
Michael  were  greatly  distressed  one  winter  to  find  out 
almost  by  accident  that  the  Indians  in  the  village  near  by 
were  perishing  of  cold  and  hunger.  But  all  such  relief 
must  come  from  private  purses;  there  are  no  public  funds 
available.  It  is  clearly  the  Government's  duty  to  care  for 
the  Indians ;  they  are  not  a  charge  upon  the  states  or  ter- 
ritories within  the  United  States,  and  the  federal  Govern- 
ment is  morally  bound  to  take  care  of  them  in  Alaska. 
The  burden  of  this  obligation  was  clearly  set  forth  in  a 
forcible  speech  by  Rev.  D.  W.  Cram  before  the  senatorial 
committee  at  Valdez.  He  maintained  that  the  Govern- 
ment owes  the  Alaska  Indian :  first,  a  living,  because  the 
changed  conditions  ha\"e  largely  deprived  him  of  the 
chance  to  earn  it  himself;  second,  the  protection  of  his 


INDIANS  OF  ALASKA  299 

personal  rights,  in  which  respect  he  has  been  most  unjustly 
treated  in  many  ways ;  and,  third,  it  owes  him  an  education 
not  only  in  books  but  in  some  of  the  simple  arts  by  which 
he  may  improve  his  condition. 

At  Nome  the  committee  listened  to  statements  concern- 
ing the  Indians  by  Captain  J.  C.  Barr,  of  Tacoma,  who 
has  spent  many  years  in  x'Maska  and  is  one  of  the  best  in- 
formed men  on  the  Indian  question  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
and  by  Major  J.  F.  A.  Strong,  editor  of  the  Nome  Nug- 
get. Captain  Barr  favoured  the  establishment  of  one  or 
two  reservations  where  the  Indians  might  be  collected 
and  taken  care  of,  somewhat  on  the  reservation  plan  in 
the  States.  Major  Strong  advocated  the  appointment  of 
agents  who  should  be  charged  with  the  duty  of  caring 
for  the  Indians,  and  who  should  protect  them  from  being 
defrauded  in  the  sale  of  the  product  of  their  native  handi- 
crafts, by  which  they  could,  if  thus  assisted,  aid  materially 
in  their  own  support.  Both  Captain  Barr  and  Major 
Strong  condemned  rigorously  the  restrictions  laid  upon  the 
Indians  by  the  game  laws. 

The  Fskimo  is  by  nature  a  hunter.  He  seeks  his  game 
on  land  and  sea.  The  walrus,  the  whale  and  the  seal  af- 
forded him  food  and  shelter  before  the  white  man  drove 
these  animals  beyond  his  power  to  pursue  them  in  his  com- 
paratively frail  oomiak.  Rev.  C.  E.  Ryberg,  of  Nome, 
who  has  proven  his  right  to  speak  for  the  natives  by  ser- 
vices rendered  to  them,  suggests  as  a  practical  measure  of 
relief  that  the  Government  furnish  for  the  use  of  the 
natives  of  the  west  and  north  coasts  small  steam  vessels 


300         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

^^  ith  which  they  may  take  whales  and  wah-us.  He  chiims 
there  is  experience  to  justify  the  expectation  that  this 
could  be  made  a  very  profitable  business  for  the  natives, 
who  are  experts  In  this  hne,  after  reimbursing  the  Gov- 
ernment for  Its  expense  In  equipping  and  sailing  the  ships. 
The  whaling  business  is  again  attracting  white  whalers 
for  the  profit  there  Is  In  it,  and  he  argues  that  It  would 
be  even  more  profitable  for  the  Eskimos.  Whalebone  is 
now  worth  $7.50  a  pound,  the  ivory  of  the  walrus  is  val- 
uable and  $20,000  In  whale  oil  is  a  moderate  catch  for  a 
schooner  In  a  single  season.  This  looks  like  a  practical 
plan  to  restore  a  native  industry  which  once  was  adequate 
to  the  support  of  these  people,  but  which  would  be  revived 
under  very  much  more  favourable  conditions  than  orig- 
inally prevailed. 

If  one  would  see  the  disastrous  consequences  of  the  un- 
restricted contact  of  the  Indians  with  the  whites  he  need 
go  no  further  than  the  sandspit  at  Nome,  where  are  en- 
camped during  the  summer  Eskimos  from  points  all  along 
the  coast  and  as  far  aw^ay  as  East  Cape,  Siberia.  The 
Indians  of  Alaska  are  not  noted  for  chastity  under  any 
conditions,  and  the  conditions  which  exist  there  are  about 
the  worst  in  this  respect,  while  the  easy  access  to  "  fire- 
water "  produces  the  results  that  might  naturally  be  ex- 
pected. 

I  brought  away  from  Alaska  no  more  persistent  and 
recurring  impression  than  that  of  the  heavy  obligation 
resting  upon  the  Government  to  do  something  to  amel- 
iorate the  condition  of  these  wretched  people  of  the  north, 


INDIANS  OF  ALASKA  301 

who  have  fallen  Into  our  hands  through  no  fault  of  their 
own,  and  for  whom  the  Go\ernment  has  thus  far  done  so 
very  little. 

The  McCuIIoch  arrived  in  Seattle  harbour  in  the  early 
morning  of  Thursday,  August  27.  We  left  there  June  28, 
so  that  our  trip  from  the  sound  to  the  Arctic  and  back 
again  to  Seattle  had  occupied  just  two  months.  The  dis- 
tance covered  from  Minneapolis  and  back  to  this  city 
aggregated  a  little  over  10,000  miles. 

From  St.  Michael  to  Seattle  we  travelled  by  the  revenue 
cutter  McCulloch,  stopping  at  such  points  as  the  members 
of  the  senatorial  committee  wished  to  reach.  The  log  of 
that  splendid  ship  showed  that  we  had  travelled  with  her 
3,406  miles,  and  just  twenty-eight  days.  For  the  many 
courtesies  received  at  the  hands  of  Captain  W.  C.  Coulson 
and  Lieutenant  F.  M.  Dunwoody  and  all  the  officers  of 
the  ship  I  am  personally  under  heavy  obligations.  Captain 
Coulson  reached  the  age  of  retirement  about  six  weeks 
after  our  arrival  at  Seattle,  and  is  now  enjoying  the  rest 
and  leisure  he  has  so  well  earned  after  more  than  forty 
years  of  faithful  and  honourable  service  to  his  country. 
Lieutenant  Dunwoody  has  received  a  wcll-carncil  promo- 
tion, and  is  now  in  command  of  another  shlji  in  the 
revenue  service.  I  shall  hear  of  his  continued  success  and 
of  the  advancement  of  any  of  his  fellows  of  the  McCul- 
loch with  great  pleasure,  as  they  jnoxed  tiiemscKes  on 
that  long  \oyagc  to  be  courteous  gentlemen  and  capable 
and  faithful  servants  of  their  government. 


302  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

As  for  the  tour  of  the  members  of  the  senatorial  com- 
mittee, I  am  sure  that  in  time  it  will  result  in  great  things 
for  Alaska.  I  believe  they  came  back  greatly  impressed 
with  the  possibilities  of  that  wonderful  country  and  re- 
alising fully  the  peculiar  responsibility  which  rests  upon 
them  to  advance  its  interests  in  every  way.  They  made 
serious  business  of  their  tour  of  investigation  every  day, 
and  have  the  information  which  qualifies  them  to  shape 
legislation  with  respect  to  Alaska  wisely  and  for  the  best 
interests  of  a  country  which  is  one  day  destined  to  contain 
several  millions  of  prosperous  people. 

Since  the  publication  of  the  preceding  chapters  in  news- 
paper form,  for  the  purposes  of  this  book  and  to  make 
more  complete  and  timely  this  story  of  Alaska  as  it  is 
to-day,  the  following  two  chapters  on  "  The  New  Fair- 
banks District,"  and  on  the  great  possibilities  of  "  The 
Reindeer  Industry,"  have  been  added. 

J.  S.  M. 


XIV 
THE  FAIRBANKS  DISTRICT 

SOMEBODY  in  describing  the  gold  fields  of  the 
north  has  said:  "  The  gold  of  Alaska  is  where  you 
find  it."  That  may  not  strike  you  as  a  very  profound 
remark,  but  it  is  significant,  nevertheless.  The  geologist 
has  done  very  little  to  aid  the  prospector  in  the  north. 
The  prospector  has  been  ahead  of  him  nearly  every  time. 
The  geologist  has  come  along  afterwards  and  studied  the 
conditions  and  reported  on  them,  but  for  all  practical  pur- 
poses the  scientific  men  have  cut  a  small  figure  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  country.  But  that  isn't  their  fault.  Think 
of  the  immense  extent  of  country  to  be  surveyed,  the  in- 
adequate number  of  men  engaged  in  scientific  exploration 
and  the  meagreness  of  the  appropriation  for  that  purpose 
compared  with  the  ground  to  be  covered,  and  the  diffi- 
culties under  which  the  work  must  be  done. 

It  was  a  squaw  man  who  uncovered  the  riches  of  the 
Klondike;  a  trio  of  reindeer  herders  staked  the  first  claim 
on  Anvil  Creek;  the  last  great  stampede  in  Alaska  fol- 
lowed the  lead  of  a  weary  and  footsore  Italian  coal-miner, 
who,  deserted  by  his  last  companion,  and  working  alone 
among  the  hills  between  the  Little  Chcna  and  the  Chatinka 
rivers,  whose  waters  flow  into  the  1  anana  from  the  north, 
hit  upon  the  treasures  of  what  is  now  known  as  the  Fair- 

303 


304         ALASKA  AND  THI^  KLONDIKE 

banks  District.  It  is  250  miles  in  a  direct  line  from  Daw- 
son to  Fairbanks;  it  is  500  miles  in  a  straight  line  from 
Fairbanks  to  Nome;  and  the  great  Freadwell  mines  are 
700  miles  from  either  of  these  mining  centres.  Where  the 
next  important  discovery  is  to  be  made  is  a  secret  of  the 
future,  with  nothing  more  to  suggest  how  or  when  or 
where  it  will  be  revealed  than  preceded  the  unfolding  of 
the  others.  Alaska  is  a  big  country.  That's  what  the  word 
"Alaska  "  means;  gold  seems  to  have  been  scattered  all 
o\'er  it.  The  only  difficulty  is  to  find  places  where  it  has 
been  sown  thick  enough  by  the  hand  of  nature  to  make 
it  profitable  to  gather  it. 

The  new  discoveries  in  the  Tanana  valley  were  begin- 
ning to  attract  some  attention  and  led  to  a  small 
stampede  in  the  summer  of  1903.  On  board  the  Healy, 
the  steamer  which  our  party  overtook  at  Nulato,  on  our 
trip  down  the  Yukon,  I  found  two  Minnesota  men  who 
had  just  come  out  of  the  Tanana  country  very  much  dis- 
appointed, and  resolved  that  that  was  the  last  stampede 
in  which  they  would  ever  engage.  Since  then  six  or  seven 
thousand  have  gone  in,  most  of  them  are  there  yet  and 
thousands  more  will  no  doubt  go  this  year  ( 1905). 

Felix  Pedro  sought  for  gold  four  summers  among  the 
hills  and  along  the  creeks  of  the  Forty-Mile  district,  the 
Kitchumstock  and  in  the  Circle  City  district,  and  finally 
on  the  banks  of  the  creeks  which  rise  west  of  the  Forty- 
Mile  district  and  flow  into  the  Tanana.  Here  in  July, 
1902,  he  found  at  last  the  object  of  his  search.  Known  as 
a  careful   and  diligent  prospector,   his  movements  were 


3o6         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

closely  watched  by  others  who  desired  to  take  advantage 
of  his  Industry  and  his  persistence.  To  avoid  revealing  the 
secret  of  his  discovery  before  he  could  secure  the  results 
of  his  labours  for  himself  and  those  who  had  aided  him 
in  his  search,  he  made  his  camp  several  miles  from  the 
scene  of  his  mining  operations,  and  going  secretly  each  day 
to  his  work  before  and  after  daylight,  cutting  his  way 
through  the  frozen  ground  without  fires,  and  carrying 
the  waste  up  a  ladder  in  a  sack,  he  succeeded  in  locating 
claims  which  have  since  made  him  and  his  friends  inde- 
pendent of  further  concern  with  regard  to  the  fortunes 
of  the  miner. 

Travellers  up  the  Tanana  from  the  Yukon  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1 903  would  have  found  200  miles  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Tanana  a  rambling  village  of  150  to  200  people. 
The  name  given  to  this  place  was  Fairbanks,  out  of  com- 
pliment to  the  present  vice-president,  who  as  a  senator 
had  manifested  unusual  interest  in  the  District  of  Alaska. 
To-day  there  stands  on  the  same  site  a  city  of  5,000  peo- 
ple, incorporated,  with  extensiv^e  business  houses,  two 
lumber  mills  producing  25,000  feet  daily  and  unable  to 
supply  the  demand,  two  newspapers,  schools,  churches,  a 
free  library,  a  hospital,  electric  lights,  a  telephone  system 
and  a  real-estate  boom.  Business  lots,  50  feet  front,  rent 
as  high  as  $300  a  month  ground  rent,  and  others  less 
favourably  situated  sold  during  the  past  year  for  $3,000. 
This  town  has  telegraphic  communication  by  means  of  the 
Alaska  Government  system  with  Nome,  Rampart,  Eagle, 
Dawson,  Valiez    and  Seattle.     The  telephone  system  not 


THE  FAIRBANKS  DISTRICT  307 

only  connects  different  parts  of  the  town,  which  is  scattered 
for  a  mile  and  a  half  along  the  Little  Chena  River,  but 
furnishes  communication  also  with  Chena,  20  miles  west 
on  the  Tanana,  and  with  the  mining  camps  on  the  creeks, 
20  to  30  miles  northeast.  A  road  is  in  course  of  construc- 
tion from  Fairbanks  to  the  centre  of  the  mining  district, 
and  a  railroad  over  the  same  route  is  already  projected 
and  promised  as  one  of  the  developments  of  the  coming 
year. 

The  routes  of  transportation  to  Fairbanks  from  Seattle 
are,  in  summer,  either  by  way  of  Skagway  and  the  White 
Pass  line  to  Dawson,  thence  down  the  Yukon  River  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Tanana  and  up  the  Tanana,  or  by  way  of 
St.  Michael  up  the  Yukon  and  the  Tanana;  in  winter, 
many  will  take  the  trail  from  Dawson  or  Circle  City  into 
this  new  region,  but  more  will  go  by  the  shorter  route 
through  Valdez,  up  the  Copper  River  valley,  and  down 
the  Tanana.  Many  are  expected  to  make  their  advent 
during  the  winter  by  the  latter,  which  is  much  the  shorter 
route,  travelling  overland  with  dog  teams  or  horses  from 
Valdez. 

During  the  past  summer  the  stampede  from  Dawson 
into  this  new  gold  field  threatened  to  depopulate  the 
pietropolis  of  the  Klondike.  It  is  estimated  that  3,000 
people  left  Dawson  for  Fairbanks  by  the  Yukon  River, 
and  that  three-quarters  of  a  million  dollars'  worth  of 
goods  were  shipped  by  the  Dawson  dealers  to  the  Tanana, 
while  $2^0,000  has  been  sent  out  from  that  centre  lor 
investment  in  the  Fairbanks   mines  and  in  xarious  business 


3o8         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

enterprises.  The  stampede  to  the  Fairbanks  district  has 
also  brought  the  largest  volume  of  business  to  the  fleet  of 
boats  on  the  lower  Yukon  since  the  rush  to  the  Klondike 
in  1898.  The  earnings  of  these  river  boats,  and  chiefly 
from  the  Tanana  business,  is  estimated  at  from  $500,000 
to  $750,000  for  the  season  of  1904.  The  fare  from  Daw- 
son to  Fairbanks  was  $40  second  class,  $70  first  class  and 
the  freight  rate,  $70  a  ton.  The  Tanana  is  not  navigable 
by  the  larger  river  steamers  and  much  of  the  freight 
billed  to  Fairbanks  must  be  re-shipped  at  the  mouth  of  that 
river.  From  St.  Michael  to  Fairbanks,  the  freight  rates  are 
$90  a  ton,  while  the  carrying  charge  from  Fairbanks  out 
to  the  creeks  ranges  from  10  to  20  cents  a  pound  during 
the  summer,  but  was  reduced  during  the  winter  to  less  than 
half  that  figure.  It  is  16  miles  from  Fairbanks  to  Dis- 
covery claim  on  Pedro  Creek  and  25  miles  from  Fairbanks 
to  Cleary  Creek,  on  which  most  of  the  development  has 
been  done.  It  is  stated  that  $2,200  was  paid  last  summer 
for  the  transportation  of  a  20-horsepower  boiler  from 
Fairbanks,  12  miles  back  into  the  mining  district.  This 
enormous  expense  is  to  be  accounted  for,  of  course,  only 
by  the  fact  that  there  are  no  roads  through  that  country 
worthy  the  name.  It  is  expected  that  scores  of  steam  boil- 
ers and  thousands  of  tons  of  other  freight  and  machinery 
will  be  taken  into  the  mining  district  during  the  winter,  but 
this  is  a  comparatively  easy  task  when  the  surface  of  the 
ground  is  frozen.  Fairbanks  itself  is  difficult  of  access 
owing  to  the  necessity  of  transferring  the  freight  from  the 
larger  steamers  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tanana  to  smaller 


ti?/ 


jio         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

steamers  adapted  to  the  navigation  of  the  stream  and  of 
the  still  smaller  Chena,  on  the  banks  of  which  Fairbanks 
is  located.  This  fact,  and  the  heavy  demand  for  supplies 
of  all  kinds,  explains  such  prices  at  Fairbanks  as  $io  to 
$12  for  lOO  pounds  of  flour;  bread  25  cents  a  loaf;  20 
cents  a  pound  for  sugar;  30  to  35  cents  a  pound  for  hams 
and  bacon;  15  to  18  cents  a  pound  for  potatoes;  butter 
$1  a  pound;  $28  a  case  for  eggs;  moosemeat,  60  cents 
a  pound;  beef,  60  cents  to  $1.25;  lumber,  rough,  $75  a 
thousand;  dressed,  $100.  Even  at  these  prices  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  meet  the  demand,  and  a  shortage  of  the  food 
supply  at  Fairbanks  was  expected  in  winter.  Last  spring 
there  was  such  a  scarcity  of  food  that  wild-goose  eggs 
commanded  s  50  cents  apiece,  and  the  first  fresh  beef 
brought  into  the  camp  sold  for  75  cents  to  $1.50  a  pound. 
These  prices,  too,  are  not  the  result  of  any  desire  or  at- 
tempt to  corner  the  supplies,  for  efforts  of  that  kind  are 
guarded  against  by  the  commercial  companies  which 
handle  most  of  the  trade,  no  individual  being  allowed  to 
buy  more  than  a  reasonable  amount  at  one  time. 

Manifestly  Fairbanks  is  no  place  for  a  poor  man  and 
this  is  true  not  only  on  account  of  the  cost  of  living,  but 
for  the  reason  that  prospecting  in  that  country  involves 
sinking  shafts  10  to  20  feet  in  order  to  reach  the  gold- 
bearing  stratum.  Wages  for  mechanics  average  $1.50  an 
hour,  $1  an  hour  for  common  labour,  and  $25  a  day  for  a 
team.  But  such  wages  are  not  out  of  keeping  with  the  cost 
of  living  in  this  as  yet  comparatively  inaccessible  mining 
district. 


THE  FAIRBANKS  DISTRICT  311 

The  ore  in  the  Fairbanks  district  is  taken  by  traders  at 
$16  an  ounce.  The  miners,  not  satisfied  with  that  price, 
have  had  it  assayed  and  find  it  is  worth  $17.50,  which 
shows  that  this  is  a  fine  quality  of  gold,  better  than  that  in 
the  Klondike,  and  nearly  as  fine  as  that  at  Nome.  It  is 
more  inaccessible,  however,  than  at  either  of  the  other 
places.  In  the  Klondike  the  gold  is  often  found  exposed  or 
very  slightly  covered  along  the  beds  of  the  creeks.  The 
same  is  true  at  Nome.  In  the  Fairbanks  district  there 
seems  to  be  no  gold  in  the  creek  bottoms,  but  it  lies  up  on 
the  ledges  and  on  the  hillsides  in  a  stratum  of  gold-bearing 
gravel  two  or  three  feet  thick,  and  is  located  only  after 
sinking  shafts  10  to  20  feet  from  the  surface.  Occasionally 
the  stratum  crops  out  on  the  hillside  and  may  be  drifted 
out,  as  the  miners  say;  that  is,  tunnelled  for  from  the  hill- 
side, but  in  all  cases  it  is  frozen  and  can  only  be  removed 
after  the  ground  is  thawed.  This  makes  the  use  of  the 
boiler  or  thawer  essential,  and  it  is  stated  that  I2q  boilers 
ha\c  been  taken  into  these  creeks  during  the  past  year. 
Doubtless  many  more  will  be  employed  during  the  coming 
year,  showing  a  remarkable  degree  of  confidence  in  the  dis- 
trict and  a  stage  of  development  rarely  achieved  in  so  short 
a  time.  The  thawer  used  in  mining  in  Alaska  is  simply 
a  boiler  for  the  generation  of  steam,  which  is  delivered  by 
a  pipe  in  the  shaft.  On  the  end  of  the  steam  pipe  is  a 
flexible  connection  carrying  the  steam  into  a  hollow  steel 
tube  five  feet  in  length,  pointed,  with  apertures  at  the  point 
for  the  escape  of  the  steam.  Ihis  steel  point  Is  driven 
into  the  frozen  gravel,  the  steam  is  turnetl  on,  and  pre- 


312         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

sently  the  ground  is  softened  up  for  ii  diameter  of  two  or 
three  feet.  The  process  is  much  more  rapid  than  might  be 
supposed  by  the  inexperienced.  By  this  method  mining  is 
carried  on  in  Alaska  and  the  Klondike  all  winter,  and  the 
ore  is  taken  out  and  piled  on  the  dump  for  sluicing  in  sum- 
mer. The  frozen  condition  of  the  ground  at  a  depth  of  15 
or  20  feet  largely  obviates  the  necessity  of  timbering,  as 
the  supports  left  for  the  purpose  sustain  the  frozen  roof  of 
the  mine  without  the  aid  of  supports.  Water  in  the  Fair- 
banks region  has  been  abundant  thus  far,  and  is  likely  to 
continue  adequate  for  all  the  necessities  of  the  industry. 

That  the  district  is  a  rich  one,  and  that  it  may  yet  rival 
the  Klondike,  is  supported  by  the  prices  men  who  know  the 
district  best  are  willing  to  pay  for  mining  properties  in 
it.  A  half-interest  in  one  claim  on  Cleary  Creek  advanced 
within  a  month  from  $19,600  to  $35,000,  out  of  which 
$6,000  had  been  taken  during  the  interv^al  between  the 
purchase  and  sale.  Reports  are  made  of  clean-ups  of 
$1,600  on  Cleary  Creek  after  a  run  of  two  days,  with  five 
men  at  work;  another*  of  $700  for  two  days'  run  with 
four  men  in  the  drift,  while  the  remarkable  claim  is  made 
that  for  a  six  days'  run  on  a  Cleary  Creek  claim,  working 
18  to  20  men,  the  output  was  $16,280.  Seventy-five  thou- 
sand dollars  has  been  refused  for  an  adjacent  claim,  which 
could  have  been  bought  a  year  ago  for  $1,000,  and  $127,- 
500  was  not  enough  to  buy  a  two-thirds  interest  in  another 
Cleary  Creek  property. 

These  are  only  a  few  facts  bearing  upon  the  develop- 
ment of  what  certainly  promises  to  be  a  wonderfully  rich 


THE  FAIRBANKS  DISTRICT  313 

district,  one  in  which  there  will  be  required  the  possession 
of  some  capital  in  order  to  de\elop  and  successfully  carry 
on  a  mining  enterprise,  but  enterprising  men, — young, 
strong,  and  vigorous, — capable  of  withstanding  the  hard- 
ships of  a  miner's  life  in  Alaska,  and  with  $1,000  to 
$5,000  to  work  with,  ha\'e  opportunities  here  which  will 
no  doubt  prove  attractive  to  many  during  the  coming 
season. 

A  steam  boiler  of  8  to  20  horsepower  costs  from  $125 
to  $200  at  Fairbanks.  This,  aside  from  the  necessary  food 
supply,  with  lumber  enough  to  build  a  cabin,  constitutes 
the  chief  expense  of  an  outfit.  Many  men  have  gone  into 
Alaska,  or  the  Klondike,  with  nothing  more  than  a  shovel, 
a  pick  and  a  pan,  and  what  food  they  could  carry  on  their 
backs,  and  have  struck  it  rich;  but  it  will  require  resources 
of  more  liberal  quantity  than  that  to  insure  success  in  the 
Fairbanks  district  at  present.  The  gold-bearing  area,  so 
far  as  it  has  been  located,  extends  over  a  district  probably 
40  miles  square,  and  has  already  been  pretty  thoroughly 
prospected.  The  opportunities  offered  there  now  are 
mainly  to  those  having  money  enough  to  buy  promising 
claims,  or  enough  to  provide  the  machinery  and  the  sup- 
plies for  a  part  interest  in  a  claim.  Men  of  experience 
in  mining  will  have  an  advantage  over  the  "  tentlerfoot  " 
or  the  "  chee-cha-ko,"  and  doubtless  some  wasted  fortunes 
will  be  restored  in  this  promising  camp. 

It  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  a  lucky  miner  tiiat  a 
fortune  quickly  made  is  (]uickly  wasted.  Roaining  oxer 
the  gold  fields  of  the  north  to-day  are  many  men  on  whom 


314         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

fortune  has  smiled;  men  who  have  made  their  Kicky 
strikes,  have  reaped  their  tens,  their  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands, but  are  to-day  as  poor  as  when  they  first  took  up 
the  miner's  pick.  Such  men  are  to  be  found  in  Fairbanks. 
"  Swift  Water  Bill  "  struck  it  rich  in  the  Klondike,  and 
became  one  of  the  characters  of  Dawson.  It  pleased  him 
to  set  out  California  champagne  at  $30  dollars  a  bottle 
to  any  one  who  would  drink  with  him.  It  is  one  of  the 
traditions  of  Dawson  that  he  once  made  eggs  in  that  town 
worth  $2  apiece  by  cornering  the  entire  market  out  of 
spite  against  a  fickle  favourite.  At  the  same  time  his  tastes 
were  not  cultivated  to  the  elevation  of  $30  champagne. 
When  Bill  had  money  he  went  to  New  York  to  find  a 
place  big  enough  in  which  to  spend  it.  He  had  heard 
that  meals  could  be  had  at  Sherry's  w^hich  cost  $25,  and 
he  "  cut  loose  "  wnth  an  order  for  ham  and  eggs.  "  Swift 
Water  Bill  "  turned  up  at  Fairbanks  one  day  last  summer 
looking  for  some  one  to  furnish  him  a  grub  stake,  and 
soon  became  manager  of  a  property  out  of  which  the 
owner  took  $60,000  before  selling  it  for  $55,000. 


XV 

THE  REINDEER  INDUSTRY 

A  LASKA  is  not  often  thought  of  as  a  live-stock  coun- 
/-\  try,  and  yet  it  has  been  the  scene  of  a  very  in- 
teresting  and  very  successful  experiment  in 
animal  husbandry.  I  do  not  know  whether  the  Rev.  Shel- 
don Jackson  is  entitled  to  all  the  credit  of  having  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  importing  domesticated  reindeer  from 
Siberia,  but,  as  I  understand  it,  he  is  entitled  to  the  credit 
of  having  acted  upon  it,  with  results  already  important 
and  destined  in  a  short  time  to  be  very  much  more  valuable 
not  only  to  the  Eskimo,  in  whose  behalf  this  enterprise 
was  undertaken,  but  to  the  white  settlers  as  well. 

The  invasion  of  the  northern  seas  by  the  whaling  ship 
had  driven  the  whale,  the  walrus  and  the  seal  so  far  from 
their  accustomed  haunts  along  the  Alaskan  shore  that  the 
natives  were  unable  to  pursue  these  sources  of  food  and 
shelter  and  clothing  in  their  frail  hunting  boats.  The  in- 
troduction of  firearms  and  the  use  of  them  by  the  natives 
themselves  in  wasteful  slaughter  had  driven  so  much  of 
the  game  from  western  Alaska  that  every  means  of  sub- 
sistence was  failing  rapidly.  It  was  in  view  of  this  des- 
perate situation,  and  influenced  by  the  fact  that  just  across 
Bering  Strait  people  of  substantially  the  same  charac- 
teristics  were    comparatively   prosperous    and    well-to-do 

315 


3i6         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

through  reHance  upon  their  reindeer  herds,  that  the  intro- 
duction of  reindeer  into  Alaska  was  undertaken.  The 
domesticated  reindeer  of  Siberia  and  the  wild  caribou  of 
Alaska  are  generically  the  same  animal;  but  it  was  mani- 
festly easier  to  import  the  domesticated  animal  than  to 
attempt  to  domesticate  the  wild  one. 

It  was  in  1891  that  Mr.  Jackson,  thoroughly  familiar 
with  the  conditions  among  the  Eskimo  by  reason  of  his 
office  as  general  agent  of  education  in  Alaska,  obtained 
from  the  Government  permission  to  use  the  revenue  cutter 
Thetis  for  a  trip  to  Siberia  for  the  purchase  of  reindeer. 
The  Government  had  been  asked  to  make  an  appropria- 
tion for  this  purpose,  but  so  little  confidence  was  reposed 
in  the  scheme  by  those  in  authority  that  no  public  money 
was  available.  Private  citizens,  having  confidence  in  Mr. 
Jackson's  judgment  and  sympathy  with  the  cause,  fur- 
nished $2,000  with  which  to  purchase  reindeer.  The  next 
obstacle  was  to  remov^e  the  objections  of  the  Siberians 
themselves.  While  they  were  glad  to  obtain  money  or 
goods,  they  were  reluctant  to  dispose  of  any  of  their 
animals.  Social  rank  was  determined  largely  by  the  num- 
ber of  reindeer  the  individual  possessed.  It  was  like  lower- 
ing one's  dignity  and  standing  in  the  community  to  sell 
his  reindeer.  And  this  obstacle  was  not  overcome  until 
the  Thetis  had  cruised  for  1,500  miles  along  the  coast 
of  Siberia,  picking  up  a  reindeer  here  and  one  there,  until 
finally  16  were  obtained  and  carried  to  Amaknak  Island, 
in  the  Aleutian  chain.  The  next  year  171  were  obtained 
and  taken  to  Port  Clarence ;  the  fir:t  permanent  reindeer 


Qi 


■J'' 


3i8  ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

station  was  established,  and  named  Teller  Station.  In 
later  expeditions  to  buy  reindeer,  and  through  arrange- 
ments made  with  the  Russian  Government,  reindeer  were 
obtained  as  a  loan,  with  the  understanding  that  the  same 
number  were  in  the  course  of  time  to  be  returned. 

There  are  said  to  be  hundreds  of  thousands  of  square 
miles  of  what  is  known  as  reindeer  moss  in  Alaska.  This 
is  a  grey,  hard,  brittle  form  of  vegetation  which  in  the 
matter  of  consistency  and  palatableness  ought  to  take 
high  rank  as  a  breakfast  food.  It  is,  however,  a  very 
nourishing  plant,  and  upon  this  wild  caribou  feed  in  win- 
ter, the  summer  forage  of  the  caribou  as  well  as  of  the 
reindeer  consisting  of  the  green  growth  of  grass  and 
shrubs. 

The  imported  reindeer,  coming  to  conditions  similar  to 
those  from  which  they  had  been  brought,  throve  and  mul- 
tiplied, demonstrating  the  practicability  of  stocking  the 
plains  and  hills  of  Alaska  with  herds  of  this  exceedingly 
useful  animal.  The  Government  in  1894,  satisfied  with 
the  results  accomplished,  made  an  appropriation  of  $6,000 
for  the  further  development  of  the  reindeer  Industry. 
Appropriations  have  been  made  annually  ever  since  and 
in  increasing  amounts,  until  now  they  amount  to  $25,000, 
and  the  reindeer  herds,  which  began  13  years  ago  with 
the  first  lot  of  16,  have  increased  to  over  7,000.  These 
animals  are  distributed  in  herds  of  various  sizes  from 
Point  Barrow,  the  most  northern  habitation  of  the  white 
man  on  the  Arctic  Ocean,  to  Bethel  Mission,  a  thousand 
miles  south  at  the  mouth  of  the  Kuskokwim. 


^tr 


vskT^ 


320         AO^K^ND  THE  KLONDIKE 

Of  course,  the  Alaskan  Eskimo,  having  never  kept 
domesticated  reincleer,  had  to  be  taught  how  to  care  for 
then-^  For  this  pul^k^he  Government  imported  a  num- 
ber of  Laplanders  and  Finns,  and  also  brought  over  for 
a  short  time  several  Siberians.  As  a  rule  reindeer  stations 
have  been  established  by  the  Government  in  connection 
with  some  church  mission,  for  the  existence  of  the  mission 
implies  the  presence  of  an  Eskimo  village  and  a  number 
of  young  Eskimo  men  from  whom  may  be  selected  those 
best  qualified  for  this  work.  The  Eskimo  serves  an  ap- 
prenticeship of  five  years  as  a  herder  in  connection  with 
some  mission  station,  his  wages  consisting  mainly  of  a 
certain  number  of  deer  set  apart  for  him  each  year,  so 
that  at  the  end  of  his  apprenticeship  he  may  start  in  the 
reindeer  business  on  his  own  account.  The  object  of  the 
Government  in  introducing  this  industry  being  to  benefit 
the  Eskimo  and  not  the  white  man,  it  has  forbidden  the 
sale  of  female  reindeer  to  any  one  but  Eskimos,  so  that  no 
others,  for  the  present  at  least,  may  become  possessed  of 
reindeer  herds. 

Under  this  arrangement  about  sixty  Eskimos  have  been 
started  in  business  for  themselves  as  owners  of  reindeer 
herds,  and  have  been  raised  from  a  condition  of  depend- 
ence and  poverty  to  comfort  and  comparative  affluence. 

The  services  which  the  reindeer  renders  are  many  and 
valuable.  The  reindeer  supplies  food;  his  pelt  supplies 
clothing  and  shelter.  The  reindeer  is  a  great  success  as  a 
means  of  transportation,  packing  150  to  200  pounds  on 
his  back,  or  hauling  500  pounds  on  a  sled,  and  travelling 


THE  REINDEER 


ifmjs 


USTRY 


3^1 


from  35  to  50  miles  a  day.  The  reindeer  may  be  a  source 
of  revenue  to  his  owner,  who  majM|]l  his  Besh  in  the 
market  or  sell  his  services  as  a  meSwof<|ransportation. 
At  the  same  time,  this  commonly  docile  animal,  capable 
also  of  great  endurance,  is  practically  self-supporting.    He 


Group  of  Laplanders  in  Alaska 

will  find  his  fa\ourItc  food  in  winter  under  any  dcptli  of 
snow  yet  experienced  in  that  country,  and,  turned  loose 
from  the  sletl  after  a  long  hard  day's  tra\el,  will  jiroceed 
to  rustle  for  himself  like  the  self-reliant  fellow  that  iu-  is. 
rhosc  who  ha\e  tested  his  capacity  for  work  declare  ihat 
he  is  much  more  useful  than  the  dog  or  the  horse,  whose 
fcQi\  must  be  pro\'iiled,  since  he  is  able   to  lind  subsistence 


322         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

for  himself  in  almost  every  part  of  that  country  at  all 
times  of  the  year. 

The  flesh  of  the  reindeer  is  equal  to  that  of  the  wild 
caribou,  or  the  deer,  and  scarcely  inferior  to  the  best 
American  beef.  A  carcass  is  worth  in  the  market  of  Nome 
from  $40  to  $60,  while  the  reindeer,  trained  to  the  sled 
or  the  saddle,  is  ordinarily  valued  at  $100  to  $150.  So 
it  is  apparent  that  from  the  financial  standpoint  the  im- 
portation of  domesticated  reindeer  into  Alaska  has  al- 
ready proven  a  success. 

But  even  if  this  were  not  true,  the  service  which  the 
reindeer  herds  of  Alaska  rendered  in  the  winter  of  1897 
and  1898  in  connection  with  the  relief  expedition  to  Point 
Barrow,  led  by  Captain  Jarvis,  would  justify  the  whole 
undertaking.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Captain  Jarvis 
took  several  hundred  head  of  reindeer  from  the  reindeer 
stations  around  Norton  Sound  when  he  went  to  the  relief 
of  the  imprisoned  and  famishing  whalers,  and  saved  the 
lives  of  scores  of  them  by  the  relief  which  he  brought  and 
the  regulations  which  he  enforced.  Two  hundred  and 
forty-six  reindeer  were  slaughtered  at  Point  Barrow  that 
spring  for  the  subsistence  of  the  sailors,  affording  a  kind 
of  food  essential  to  their  health,  brought  on  foot,  and  the 
only  kind  which  could  ever  have  been  taken  to  their 
relief. 

Several  contracts  have  been  made  by  the  Government 
with  owners  of  reindeer  for  transportation  of  the  mails  in 
winter,  and  their  fitness  for  this  service  has  been  amply 
demonstrated. 


I 


^Ji 


Mary  Andrew  uk,  Reindeer  RancluT  and  Riclicst  Native  Woman 
in  Alaska 


324         ALASKA  AND  THE  KLONDIKE 

The  Government  has  come  to  recognise  the  reindeer 
as  a  valuable  contributor  to  the  development  of  Alaska;  it 
has  made  it  a  crime  punishable  by  a  fine  of  $50  to  drive 
a  reindeer  away  from  a  herd,  and  imposes  imprisonment 
for  not  less  than  a  year  for  stealing  one  of  these  animals. 
The  reindeer  have  adapted  themselves  readily  to  condi- 
tions naturally  favourable  to  them  in  Alaska.  They  are 
prolific,  and  the  natural  increase  will  soon  stock  all  west- 
ern Alaska  with  hundreds  of  thousands  of  these  useful 
and  valuable  animals. 

So  it  appears  that  through  the  introduction  of  reindeer 
Alaska  is  destined  to  be  supplied  with  an  excellent-  sub- 
stitute for  beef  cattle,  while  the  usefulness  of  the  rein- 
deer as  a  means  of  transportation  will  add  an  important 
element  of  value  to  these  herds.  The  skin  of  the  reindeer, 
too,  is  capable  of  being  converted  into  garments  attractive 
in  colour  and  finish,  and  likely  to  be  popular  in  the  fur 
markets  of  the  country,  while  the  less  desirable  skins  will 
be  used  for  shelter  tents  and  other  purposes. 

At  the  same  time  the  influence  of  this  new  industry 
upon  the  natives  is  likely  to  be  of  immense  value.  It  will 
eventually  convert  many  of  them  from  a  state  of  pauper- 
ism and  mendicancy  into  independent,  self-supporting  men 
many  grades  higher  in  intelligence,  health  and  comfort 
than  before  the  reindeer  became  an  institution  on  the 
Seward  Peninsula.  Indeed,  the  introduction  of  the  rein- 
deer into  Alaska  is,  in  its  possibilities,  at  least,  the  most 
important  thing  the  Government  has  done  for  the  material 
welfare  of  the  natives  of  Alaska. 


INDEX 


1 


INDEX 


Agriculture,  on  upper  "^'ukon, 
34.  38,  78,  94;  Holy  Cross, 
120;  Copper  River  valley, 
231 ;  Sitka,  262  ;  Tanana  val- 
ley, 265 ;  compared  with  Rus- 
sia, 270 

Aleutian  Islands,   194,  200 

Andraefski,  124 

Anvik,   117 

Anvil  Creek,  158 

Arctic  Brotherhood,  104 

Arctic  Circle,  40,  96 

Baranof,  Alex.,  242 
Bennett,  Lake,  27 
liering   Sea,  175 
Bertholf,  Lt.  E.  P.,  85 
liompas.  Bishop  Wm.,  28,  29 
Bonanza  Creek,  61 
Boundary  line,  27 
Braily,  Gov.  John  G.,  258;  as  a 
gardener,  262 

"  Cache,"  the  Alaska  cellar,  1 10 

Call,  Dr.  S.  J.,  8s 

Cattle    and    sheep,     114,    214, 

266 
"  Chee-cha-ko,"  41 


Circle  City,  94 

Clean-up,  in  Klondike,  64; 
Nome  district,  164;  Fair- 
banks, 312 

Clcary  Creek,  312 

Climate,  15,  45,  235 

Coal,  173,  242 

Commerce,  i,  173 

Commissioners,  powers  of,   102 

Congdon,  Commissioner  Yukon 
Territory,  55 

Copper,  229 

Council  City,  168 

Curios,   130,   198,  246 

Dawson,  fare  to,  32;  seen  from 
river,  39;  routes  to,  40;  tele- 
graphs and  newspapers,  41, 
54,  76;  population,  42,  44; 
shops,  44;  public  buihh'ngs, 
4S  ;  latitude,  45  ;  climate,  4s  ; 
market  prices,  46;  schools, 
49 ;  amusements,  4H ;  nu'd- 
night  sun,  49;  hiw  enforce- 
ment, 50,  53,  S4;  paying  in 
gold  dust,  68 

Delegate  in  Congress,  6,  252, 
256 


327 


328 


INDEX 


Discovery  of  Alaska,  175 
Dogs  in  Alaska,  90 
Downing,  Ben,  87 
Duncan,    Father   William,    12, 

288 
Dutch  Harbour,  iy6 

Eagle  City,  76,  78,  92,  93 
Eldorado  Creek,  62 
Eskimo — see  Natives 

Fairbanks,  44,  304;  routes  to, 
307 ;  market  prices,  310;  real- 
estate  prices,  306;  value  of 
ore,  311;  rich  claims,  312 

Finns,  320 

Fisheries,  6;  salmon  output,  202, 
212;  methods,  203;  packing, 
204 ;  spawning,  208 ;  hatch- 
eries, 210;  tax,  211;  other 
fish,  202,  212 

Forty-Mile,  39,  61,  76 

Fox  ranching,  216 

Fort  Egbert,  76,  78 

Fort  Gibbon,   116 

Fort  Yukon,  96,  99 

Frost  line,  112,  162 

Fur  seal,  rookeries,  176;  annual 
catch,  179;  method  of  killing, 
182;  pelagic  sealing,  187, 
190;  habits  of  seal,  187,  188; 
peculiar  seal  nomenclature, 
188;  poaching,  188,  191; 
sealing  privilege,  192 


Game  laws,  282 

Glaciers,  Columbian,  217;  Val- 

dez,  218;  Malaspina,  240 
Gold  dust  used  as  money,  68; 

values      in      Klondike,      69; 

Nome,    164;   Fairbanks,   311 
Gold     output,     Alaska,      154; 

Klondike,    74;    Nome,    171; 

Fairbanks,  311;  cost  of,   172 
Government  of  Alaska,  loi,  260 

Holy  Cross,  1 19 
Homestead  claim,  269 

Indians — see  Natives 
"  Inside  passage,"  9 

Jackson  museum,  108,  246 
Jackson,  Rev.  Sheldon,  315 
Japan  current,  15 
Jarvis,  Capt.  D.  H.,  82 
Judiciary,   government  by,    loi 
Juneau,  16,  18 

Kazhim,  131 

Ketchikan,  12,  14 

Klondike,  discovery,  56,  58; 
character  of  gold,  64,  69; 
mining  methods,  64;  staking 
of  claim,  70;  output,  74 

Kodiak,  213 

Laplanders,  320 
Lighthouse  service,  10 


INDEX 


3^9 


McCuUoch,  The,  135,  137 

Mail  facilities,  6,  78,  88,  171 

Marble,  242 

Mastodon,  1 12 

Metlakahtla,  12,  288 

Midnight  sun,  49 

Mining  laws,  6;  in  Klondike, 
70,  74;  in  Alaska,  166,  272; 
power  of  attorney,  272 ;  com- 
pared with  Yukon  Ten,  274 

Mining  methods,  in  Klondike, 
64;  at  Nome,  159,  160,  162; 
Fairbanks,  31 1 

Mosquitoes,  118,  123 

Mt.  McKinlej',  237 

Mt.  St.  Klias,  237,  240 

"  Mushing,"  88 

Natives,  origin,  1 1  ;  graves,  119; 
habits,  130;  social  life,  131; 
dances,  134;  on  Seal  Islands, 
178;  decimation,  276;  treat- 
ment of,  278,  284;  original 
condition,  280;  food,  280; 
tribes,  284 ;  citizens,  285 ; 
schools,  121,  285;  hospitable, 
296;  obligation  to,  298;  ser- 
vice of  reindeer,  324 

Newspapers,  54,  169 

Nome,  140;  harbour,  142,  148, 
171;  description,  IS*"*;  pop\i- 
lation,  I  S2  ;  social  life,  i  S4, 
\^()\  first  strike.  1^7;  water 
supply,    IS9;   clean-up,    164; 


government    of,     169;    gold 

output,    171;  cost  of  output, 

172 
Northwest  mounted  police,   27, 

3 1)  3^,  51;  recommended  for 

Alaska,  54 
Nulato,   iiO,   117 

Opportunities,  4,  310,  313 

Panning  for  gold,  64 

Petroleum,  240 

Political  condition,  248 

Population,  250 

Potlatch,  131 

Prices,  46,  170,  222,  224 

Pt.  Barrow  relief  expcilition,  82 

Purchase  of  Alaska,  3 

Railways,  24;  at  Nome,  159; 
Valdez  to  Eagle,  218,  226, 
228  ;  profitable,  229 ;  Seward 
to  Tanana,  234 

Rampart,  99 

Reindeer,  introduction,  domesti- 
cated, 3i();  thriving  industry, 
318 

Revenue  cutter  service,  13^,  138 

Roads,  (),  24,  56;  need  of,  in 
Ahiska,  220;  Yukon  Terri- 
tory, 220;  effect  on  freights, 
222;  precursor  of  railroads, 
231;  go\crniucnt  :iiil,  I},!, 
2()\  ;  cost  of,  in  Alask;i,  l},2\ 
freights  at  Fairbanks,  308 


33^ 


INDEX 


Royalt}^  on  Klondike  gold,  69 
Russia  in  Alaska,  124,  175,  242 

St.  Michael,  126 

Salmon — see  Fisheries 

Schools,  121,  285,  286 

Seattle,  6,  9 

Senatorial  committee,  5,  302 

Sitka,  242,  245,  248 

Skagway,  9,  22 

"  Sour  Dough,"  41 

Sports,  48 

Staking  a  claim,  70 

Swineford,  Ex-Gov,,   15 

Taxes,    Yukon    Ter.,     56;    in 

Alaska,  102,  260 
Telegraph,    41,    76,    116,    117, 

171,  306 
Telephone,  306 
Territorial  government,  6,  lOi, 

248;    home    rule,    250;    ob- 


stacles, 250,  252;  precedents, 

255;  objections,  259 
Tin,    174 
Treadvvell  mine,  16,  18 

Unalaska,  195,  199 

Valdez,  217,  219 
Vancouver  Island,  9 

Wages,  310 
Whaling,  315 
White  Horse,  24,  31 
White  Pass,  21,  23,  26 
Women  in  Alaska,  80,  156 
Wood,  Col.  Z.  T.,  51 
Wrangell,  16 

Yukon    River,    travel    on,    32 ; 

size    of,    34;    solitudes,    36; 

colour,    38;    flats,  96;    delta, 

126 
Yukon     Ten,     buildings,     45 ; 

organisation,    55 ;    taxes,    56 


t 


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